


Descendant of Hogwarts: The Basilisk Comes

by QueenlingMonster



Series: Descendant Of Hogwarts [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Brotherly Affection, Bullying, Crushes, Developing Friendships, Dursley Family Bashing (Harry Potter), Enemies, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Idiot Teacher, Love, Marcus Flint Bashing, Pansy Parkinson Bashing, Protective Draco Malfoy, Protective Fred Weasley, Protective George Weasley, Protective Harry Potter, Protective Original Female Character(s), Ron Weasley Bashing, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Teenage Tom Riddle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:35:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27011365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenlingMonster/pseuds/QueenlingMonster
Summary: The Potter twins head off for their second year at Hogwarts. If they thought that their first year was bad, they haven't seen nothing yet. Hold on to your seat belts as the twins have to deal with students being petrified, voices in the walls, a mysterious diary, and a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher that knows nothing. During all of this, Anastasia has to go through bullies, her fragile health, and a crush for a certain idiotic teacher. Let's hope that there isn't any deaths this year.
Relationships: Dobby & Harry Potter, Dobby & Lucius Malfoy, Dobby & Original Female Character(s), Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy & Lucius Malfoy & Narcissa Black Malfoy, Draco Malfoy & Original Female Character(s), Draco Malfoy & Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy & Severus Snape, Fred Weasley & George Weasley, Fred Weasley & George Weasley & Original Female Character(s), Fred Weasley & Original Female Character(s), George Weasley & Original Female Character(s), Gregory Goyle & Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter & Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger & Original Female Character(s), Hermione Granger & Ron Weasley, Lucius Malfoy & Narcissa Black Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy & Original Female Character(s), Lucius Malfoy & Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy, Marcus Flint & Original Female Character(s), Marcus Flint & Pansy Parkinson, Narcissa Black Malfoy & Original Female Character(s), Original Female Character(s) & Original Female Character(s), Pansy Parkinson & Original Female Character(s), Rubeus Hagrid & Harry Potter, Rubeus Hagrid & Original Female Character(s), Severus Snape & Original Female Character(s), Vincent Crabbe & Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe & Gregory Goyle & Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Descendant Of Hogwarts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923337
Kudos: 1





	1. Stupid Dobby

Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my original characters. This is made for my entertainment and for the entertainment of the fan fiction community!

I can honestly say that I miss my magical school, Hogwarts. Sitting here in this small room that I share with my brother in the Dursley residence makes me realize how boring life is without magic. Life is boring when you have only one thing to look forward to and that one thing is so far away. If waiting for school isn’t boring enough, it is even more boring when for some strange reason none of your friends are contacting you. This is what I am dealing with and from glancing to my left, I can only assume that my big brother is also feeling like this. The Dursleys have gone back to their old ways of being mean to my brother and me, but now they mostly ignore us. I can’t decide if this is better or worse than before. Uncle Vernon took all our magical stuff and locked it in the cupboard underneath the stairs when we arrived home from school. He even went so far as putting a lock on Hedwig’s cage. So, even if our friends did send us letters we wouldn’t be able to reply to them, anyway.

“Big brother? Why haven’t we gotten any letters from our friends?” I ask him through the mind link and my mind’s voice sounds sad to the point that I want to cry. Did they forget about us? Were we even friends? Draco told me that he would write to me during the summer, but I haven’t received anything throughout this whole break. Was he lying to me? Nobody has even sent anything for our birthday. Harry’s arms wrapping around me makes me realize that I’m crying. This whole situation with my friends never really bothered me until today.

“I don’t know why they haven’t sent us any letters, but maybe they are just really busy. For now, let’s not think about that, and let’s think about how we’re going to Hogwarts soon,” he says while trying to get me to smile. Just the thought of going back to that magical school makes me smile, and I try to wipe away the tears that are still escaping my eyes. Wanting the tears and sadness to stop, I grab the photo album that Hagrid gave us and start to flip through it while leaning against Harry’s shoulder. I stop at the first picture in the album which is the picture of our mom, dad, toddler me, and toddler Harry. Sometimes I wish that we could go back to that time because we looked so happy.

I must have been looking at that one picture for too long because Harry gently turns to the next page. Nostalgia washes over my sadness when I realize that the next picture is of Harry with his two friends: Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, also known as the Weasel. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a small smile on my brother’s lips and a small smile appears on my lips as well. It always makes me happy when my brother is even the slightest bit happy.

This time, I turn to the next page and a huge smile breaks through all my emotions. Like the other one, this picture is of me with my two friends: Hermione and Draco Malfoy. Oh, Godric! I miss my friends so much, but I am going to believe what Harry said and think that they must be super busy. Draco and Hermione are smiling towards the camera while my picture self is on repeat with putting my arms around their shoulders with a smile on my face. I can’t wait to have those kinds of memories again.

Before we can move onto the next page, a screeching sound startles us into looking up from the book. The snowy barn owl, Hedwig, is fluttering her wings inside the cage which makes the cage rattle from the movement. A frown appears on my lips at the thought that she can’t spread her wings and fly.

“I’m sorry but we can’t let you out, Hedwig,” Harry says and the owl screeches back at his words, “We’re not allowed to use magic outside of school,” this only seems to upset her more because she starts to bite the lock with her beak.

As my brother starts to say something, we hear our uncle yell our names from downstairs. Gulping slightly, I look over to my left and notice that my brother doesn’t look happy either. He sighs as he grabs the book from my lap and places it back on our desk. Harry moves back over to me and holds out his hand. Defeated, I grab his hand and head towards the white bedroom door because Uncle Vernon does not like to be kept waiting.

We shuffle down the carpeted stairs and I quietly open the kitchen door. The first thing that I notice is that Aunt Petunia is putting cherries on her fruity cake. They must be having a guest over because she is dressed up in her nice tan dress with pearls around her neck. Realizing that I’m blocking the doorway, I quickly shuffle through the door to allow Harry into the kitchen as well. Just as my big brother is closing the kitchen door, Aunt Petunia looks up from her cake and gives us a quick glance before nodding her head towards the living room.

“He’s in there. Vernon?” she says while going back to her cake. We walk into the living room that is furnished nicely with brown patterned furniture and pink wallpaper. The brown carpet is neatly vacuumed by Harry, earlier today, and I dusted all the shelves and tables. There is one problem that I instantly recognized every time I enter any part of the house. Every single picture that is hanging in this house has either Dudley by himself, or all three of them in it, but not even one has me or my brother in it. Every guest that comes through this house would never believe that there are two more people living here.

Snapping out of my daydream, I notice that both Vernon and Dudley are dressed up in black suits that look like that have been ironed. Okay, a guest is definitely coming to this house shortly. Uncle Vernon is helping Dudley with his tie when he looks over at us.

“I’m warning you two, if you can’t control that bird, it’ll have to go,” he says while he continues working on the tie. Inwardly, I roll my eyes at his words because what does he expect a bird to do when they are never allowed out of the cage. It’s pretty obvious that the bird is going to throw a tantrum for not being able to fly.

“But she’s bored,” Harry tells our uncle, “If I could only let her out for an hour or two.”

“So, you can send messages to your freaky little friends? No, sir,” Vernon tells us and my hands curl into fists as he calls our friends’ freaks. It’s times like this where I wish I could use magic. As if sensing the negative thoughts that I’m thinking of, Harry puts a hand on my arm and gives it a gentle squeeze. Taking a deep breath, I look up and I notice that Dudley is looking at us with a look that says, “you guys are freaks.” I glare at him briefly before focusing on Uncle Vernon again.

“We haven’t gotten any messages from any of our friends. Not one...all summer,” his voice drifts off by the end of his sentence. Now, it’s my turn to put a hand on his shoulder and give him some support. No one says anything for a few seconds until Dudley decides to speak up after his father finishes his tie.

“Who would want to be friends with you?” he says as he walks by us and bumps our shoulders. Now, I am royally angry! I start to walk after him with my hands in fists, but my brother grabs me before I can get too far away.

“Oh! Come on, brother! Let me punch him in the face at least once in my life,” I complain through the link, but my brother continues to hold onto me. I guess that is a no then. Sighing, I stop struggling and turn my back on our cousin.

“I should think you two would be a little more grateful after everything we have done for you. We’ve raised you two since you were babies, given you two the food off our table, and even given you two Dudley’s second bedroom purely out of the goodness of our hearts,” Vernon tells us and this time I can’t hide my eye roll. After being kind to them since I was a child and have done the housework without complaints, he is saying that I should be more grateful! Out of the goodness of their hearts?!? It is more like we can’t fit underneath the stairs anymore, so they had to give us a bigger room. They had us believe that our parents died in a car crash, and they never told us about our magic. These people can’t take even a few seconds to sympathize with us! I have had enough of this! I’m not going to waste my kindness and energy on these people any longer. Yanking myself free from my brother’s touch, I stomp over to the kitchen door and up the stairs before slamming the bedroom door behind me. Honestly, I don’t care if they scold me or anything because they have already taken everything that I love already.

I face plant on my bed as I silently scream into my pillow. Why can’t time go faster?!? As I pout some more, I hear a snap before a thump appears inside the room. Fear creeps it’s way into my heart as I slowly push myself up from the bed and look towards the center of the room. A scared yelp escapes my lips when I notice that there is a short wrinkly being in the middle of my room. The thing is dirty and wearing only a dirty worn-out pillowcase. Another thing that captures my attention about the being is that it has large pointy ears like a cartoon bat or something. What in the name of Salazar is that?!? It must have sensed my staring because it turns around and gasps while backing away from me. I tilt my head to the side and move to the edge of the bed when I realize that this creature isn’t harmful.

“Anastasia Potter, it is an honor,” he says as he cautiously moves toward me. I give him a kind smile while I hold out my hand for him to shake. I’m assuming that the creature is a he because it has a masculine voice instead of feminine. The creature looks down at my hand with a questioning look and I slowly move my other hand towards his. At first, he seems really scared but I keep all my movements slow and gentle. Grabbing his hand, I place it in my outstretched hand before giving it a handshake. He visibly relaxes when I finally release his hand and he takes a few steps away from me. As he becomes calm again, I look at his face and his eyes are as big as half of his head. Not wanting to be rude but having to know, I slowly grab my notepad and pen and quickly write down the question, ‘What are you?’ before flipping it over for him to read.

“Dobby is a house-elf, ma’am,” he says, and I nod my head while taking a mental note to read about his kind later. Before I can write down my next question, I hear someone walking up the stairs and towards the room.

Instantly straightening up, I walk over to the door and open it just enough for my head to poke out. Peaking around the doorframe, I give a sigh of relief that its just my brother and I grab his arm, pulling him into the bedroom. During this whole exchange, Dobby decides to jump on my bed and makes happy sounds. Shutting the door behind me, I watch as my brother stands right in front of me and presumably staring at the creature that just appeared in our room. The house-elf jumps a few more times before jump around and noticing my brother staring at him.

“Harry Potter, such an honor it is,” he says while holding his arms together as if his confidence levels are draining the longer that we are here. At least while it was just me, Dobby seemed pretty comfortable, he was still nervous but still pretty comfortable. Now that my brother is here, he isn’t at all comfortable and seems kind of fearful.

“Who are you?” my brother asks with curiousness laced through his voice. He leans against the wardrobe slightly while I stand next to him. Wanting him to feel safe again, I give the house-elf a warm smile while giving him an encouraging nod. It did not work, but he still answers my brother’s question.

“Dobby, sir. Dobby the house elf,” he replies and gives my brother a small smile. I wonder if all house-elves are this formal or if it is just Dobby. Giving him another smile, I walk over to my brother’s bed and sit on it while watching my brother’s interaction with the house-elf.

“Not to be rude or anything, but this isn’t the best time to have a house-elf in our room,” Harry says while holding in his slight irritation. Frowning slightly, I start to think that maybe we need to get to Hogwarts sooner than planned because we are getting irritated with this family. If someone can annoy me as much as this family than that is saying something about how bad these people are. Even though we are slightly annoyed that doesn’t mean that he should take it out on someone that does not deserve it.

“Yes, sir. Dobby understands,” he says while holding up his hands in a peaceful manner. Instead of leaving, he clasps his hands together while looking at us with a nervous glance, “It’s just that Dobby has come to tell you...it is difficult, sir, ma’am. Dobby wonders where to begin.”

“Why don’t you sit down and start from the beginning?” I write down on my notepad before showing it to the little guy. His big green eyes briefly scroll over the page before looking back at us with a hint of hurt on his face.

“Sit down?” he repeats that a few times and each time his nasal voice gets quieter. A strangled cry escapes him as he shakes his head while he jumps off the bed. He turns away from us as he continues to cry, and I instantly feel guilty that I made him cry. His cries are getting louder, so I quickly look at my brother for him to intervene.

“Dobby, we’re sorry. Anastasia didn’t mean to offend you or anything,” he quickly explains while I nod my head wildly as I become even sadder when I notice that there are tears streaming down the house-elf’s gray wrinkly skin.

“Offend, Dobby?” he asks us as he turns back to look at us. I nod my head while looking down at my lap and toss the notepad onto Harry’s pillow. “Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, ma’am, but never has he been asked to sit down by a witch or wizard, like an equal.”

“You must not have met that many decent people then,” my brother tries to lighten the mood and I finally look up from my lap. Feeling slightly better that I didn’t offend the nice house-elf, I contemplate what Dobby just said. Are there that many mean people in the magical community? Yes, but I don’t want to think about that. I want to stay in my happy little bubble.

“No, I haven’t,” he says, and I just want to hug him, but I hold back that sudden urge. I don’t think he would like it if I hugged him because if Dobby acted the way that he did when I asked him to sit, I don’t want to know what will happen if I hug him. Before I can think further, I hear Dobby’s voice talking again, “That was an awful thing to say.”

After Dobby says that sentence, he walks over to our dresser and puts his hands on either side of it. As I start to question what he is doing, he starts to hit his head against the drawers, hard while saying, ‘Bad Dobby’. My golden eyes widen while my brother tries to hastily stop him because he is hitting himself so hard that the noise is definitely being heard from downstairs.

“Dobby! Please, stop!” Harry is whispering as he rushes toward the house-elf. Finally, after hitting his head a few more times he stops and walks toward the desk chair, but I keep my hands out just in case if he falls.

“Is he alright, big brother?” I ask my brother through the link, and he repeats the question to the little creature.

“Dobby had to punish himself, sir, ma’am,” he says while climbing onto the chair, “Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, sir, ma’am.”

I start to drift off into my mind as I think about everything that is happening at the moment. First, I don’t receive any letters from any of my friends. Second, my uncle tells me that I should be more grateful for them lying to me for my entire life. Finally, to top off all of that, there is a house-elf that just appeared inside my room and seems to be off his rocker slightly.

“Sister, you might want to hear this bit,” Harry calls out to me, and I shake my head before focusing on him. Once he realizes that I am paying attention again, he looks back at Dobby, “Can you repeat what you just said?”

“Dobby had to come. Dobby must protect Harry and Anastasia Potter. To warn them,” he repeats, and my eyes widen from his words. What does he have to warn us about? I mean after facing Professor Quirrell/Voldemort last year, how can something else be more dangerous than that?

“What is it, Dobby?” I write down on my notepad and show it to him.

“Harry and Anastasia Potter must not go back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year,” he says, and my eyes widen at the thought of not going back. “There is a plot, a plot to make most terrible things happen.” I look over to the other bed, and I notice that my brother has a disbelieving look on his face. He looks lost as he tries to find his words.

“What terrible things? Who’s plotting them?” his voice is serious, and all trace of irritation is long gone. Right after Harry says that Dobby gets a frustrated look on his face while clenching his teeth. The house-elf barely gets the words ‘Can’t say.’ out of his mouth before he clenches his head with his hands. Oh, no! Big brother set him off again!

As my brother is apologizing to Dobby, the little creature climbs on top of our desk and grabs the lamp. Once he starts to bang his head on the base of the lamp, I grab the lamp and try to pull it out of his grasp. The key word is trying because surprisingly he is strong and keeps it in his hands. Big brother notices that I’m having trouble and grabs the lamp as well. Together we finally yank the light source out of the house-elf’s hands, but I know for a fact that we caused too much noise and Uncle Vernon is definitely going to check on us now. As if he heard my thoughts, my brother and I quickly throw Dobby into the wardrobe while he warns the little creature to stay quiet.

Right as we close the wardrobe, Uncle Vernon starts to open the bedroom door and I quickly sit down on my bed. The overweight man that I have to call uncle comes into the room and glares at us while looking around the room. He is not happy at all.

“What the devil are you two doing up here?” He shouts while maintaining a whispering voice level. I shrug my shoulders as I turn to look out the window. I’m not going to lie to this man nor even write anything to him. For all I care, he doesn’t exist at the moment, not after what he said to me downstairs.

“We were just-,” big brother starts to say while pushing the wardrobe door close. Dobby! For the love of magic, please stay in there! I keep praying that inside my head as I continue to watch the interaction between Uncle Vernon and my brother through the reflection in the window.

“You two just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke,” he says while glaring at Harry because he is the nearest one. I roll my eyes at the fact that is the reason behind him being angry. The wardrobe opens slightly, and Harry closes it again while saying sorry to our uncle.

“One more sound and you two will wish that you were never born,” he tells us, and I nod my head after I finally turn to look at him. The wardrobe opens again slightly, and my Uncle looks at it one last time before he starts to walk out of the room, “Fix that door!”

Once the door shuts behind him, Harry pulls open the wardrobe door and lets the house-elf out of the piece of furniture. A sigh of relief escapes me, and I fall back onto the bed. That was a close call.

“Do you see why we need to go back to Hogwarts? We don’t belong here! We belong in your world! It’s the only place we have friends in,” he says as Dobby pulls a sock off his head. Ew, Harry’s dirty sock! Dobby doesn’t seem bothered by what my brother is saying. Instead, the little creature decides to smell my brother’s dirty sock while letting him finish his sentence.

“Friends who don’t write to Harry and Anastasia Potter?” he says, and I instantly stand up from the bed. How does he know about the lack of letters from our friends? We have never met this creature in our entire lives, and yet he knows about something that is relatively personal.

“Hang on. How do you know our friends haven’t been writing to us?” he says as I quickly nod my head in agreement. Maybe, I shouldn’t have trusted this creature so quickly. As if realizing his mistake, the little gray creature suddenly becomes extremely nervous while slightly backing away from us. His already big eyes widen even more before returning to their normal size.

“Anastasia and Harry Potter mustn’t be angry with Dobby,” he says while reaching to the back of his pillowcase outfit. “Dobby hoped if Harry and Anastasia Potter thought that their friends had forgotten them then Harry and Anastasia Potter might not want to go back to school, sir, ma’am.”

Now, my eyes are the ones to grow big when I realize that he has a large stack of unopened letters, my letters. I start to grow angry when I realize that this little creature is the reason behind me not receiving any letters. How dare he steal our letters and think that this was for the best?!? I have cried a countless number of tears over this whole situation when I actually didn’t need to. This whole time I thought my friends have forgotten about me or worse didn’t care about me, when in fact they haven’t forgotten about me. Considering the number of letters for the both of us, I can safely assume that they are worried that we never sent any owls back.

“Give those to us. Now,” I can hear the anger underneath his stern words and I honestly can’t feel bad for the house-elf. He did this to us and we deserve to be angry at him. Dobby quickly shouts, ‘No!’ and puts the letters back in his outfit. Realizing that he is going to bolt, I quickly try to grab him, but he dodges my attempt as well as my brother’s and opens the bedroom door. My anger is quickly changed with worry and I start to chase after him as quietly as possible.

“We cannot allow him to reach the muggles downstairs, big brother!” I shout through his mind as we quietly, but quickly run down the stairs and towards the kitchen. Unfortunately, he runs into the kitchen and we have to stay out in the hallway so that way nobody sees us. Dobby stops running and spots the cake on the kitchen counter. A happy smile appears on his wrinkly face as he turns to look at us.

“Dobby, get back here,” Harry shouts while whispering as I continue to watch his movements. The house-elf shakes his head no and looks back at the cake. With a snap of his fingers, the cake is lifted into the air and just casually hangs there. My eyes widen while my heart starts to beat rapidly.

“Dobby, please, no,” my big brother says with worry as he continues to look onwards at the cake with fear on his face. Please, Dobby, don’t do this to us! I whisper throughout my mind as I watch the cake like a hawk. Life will be even harder to live if this goes in the direction that we all know it will go.

“Anastasia and Harry Potter must say that they are not going back to school,” he says with a determined look on his face. I quickly shake my head no while my brother verbally says it.

“We can’t. Hogwarts is the closest thing to a home that we have,” he says while trying to plead to the house-elf. Dobby actually looks sad after he hears what my big brother had to say.

“Then Dobby must do it, sir, ma’am, for their own good,” he whispers and snaps his fingers again. The fruitcake starts to float through the kitchen and towards everyone in the living room. We quickly push past Dobby and watch the cake float over to the guests. We have to stop that cake somehow!

“Big brother? Do you have any ideas?!” I ask him through his mind and he just shakes his head no. He starts to cautiously walk behind the cake while holding his hands out towards the cake. This isn’t going to end well! I turn back to the house-elf with hatred and sadness clearly written on my face as he watches the scene that is about to unfold. Maybe if I distract him then the cake will stop moving? At this point, I will try anything and besides it worked when Hermione distracted Snape and Quirrell last year. Nodding my head, I do the one thing that I can think of and that is to push the elf to the floor. With enough strength to push him to the floor, I push him back toward the kitchen so that way nobody will see him. He falls to the ground with an ‘oof’ and I turn back around just in time to watch the cake fall onto the woman’s head. Uh, oh!!

All I remember after that entire scene is my uncle apologizing to them saying that my brother is disturbed while we quickly rush back to our room. Tonight isn’t going to be a good night, I just know it.

“I’m sorry, big brother,” I tell him as I sit down on my bed. He sits down next to me while asking why I am apologizing. “I thought that if I distracted that horrible creature then the cake would stop moving. I didn’t stop to think that the cake would actually fall on her head.”

“It’s fine,” my brother sighs as pulls me into a side hug, “You thought that you were doing the right thing and I can’t fault you for that. It was a better idea then what I was doing.” I continue to cry on his shoulder until I fall asleep from all the stress, and emotions that I have experienced today. Ever since I returned to the Dursley household, I have been trying to not overexert myself like what Professor Snape told me and I was doing a pretty good job that is until tonight. This is the first time that I have passed out from overexerting myself since saving the Sorcerer’s Stone.

The following days have been absolute misery since that incident. Uncle Vernon has put bars on our windows and kept us locked inside our room. Of course, they gave us food and bathroom breaks but for the most part, we have been locked inside our bedroom, which is now our prison. I can say with absolute certainty that I hate that stupid little house-elf. If I see that little creature it will be too soon. Uncle Vernon has made it his mission to never allow us back to school and to see our friends again. There has been a lot of crying, mostly from me, and comforting, mainly from my brother.

The peaceful black oblivion called sleep is quickly receding into the back of my mind as I feel something shaking me awake. It has been ten days since the dinner party, and it has been ten days since we have been able to leave the room for anything other than the bathroom. Harry and I are starting to have terrible nightmares of being in cages and thankfully tonight I wasn’t having any nightmares. Of course, with the luck that we have now, this would be the night that someone wakes me up. With annoyance clearly evident on my face, I open my eyes to find my brother standing over me in his pajamas.

“What is it, big brother?” I ask him as I look around the room. Gesturing for me to look out the window, I realize that there is a bright star heading straight towards us. As we continue to watch the light, the star or whatever it is splitting itself into two lights and a car engine is starting to reach my ears. What in the world is going on? Once the light source is close enough I realize that there is a blue Ford Anglia behind it. The most magical part about this is that the car is flying through the air straight for us. Once the car pulls up to our window, our faces break into huge smiles when we realize that we are being saved and not just by anybody. I start waving frantically at them as I silently jump up and down with excitement.

“Hiya, Harry, Anastasia,” Ron says, and I continue to wave at them. Frantically looking around, I search for my notepad while my brother starts to talk to them.

“Ron. Fred. George. What are you all doing here?” my brother asks in disbelief as I finally find my notepad which, for some strange reason, is underneath my bed. I don’t remember putting that underneath there. Shrugging, I look back at the three gingers as I blindly flip through the notepad to the very last page because I know that there is no writing in the back.

“Rescuing you two, of course. Now, come on, get your trunks,” Ronald the Weasel says to us. I frown as I remember that Uncle Vernon has put our trunks underneath the stairs. I quickly write down our dilemma and the twins smirk with an ‘I have a plan’ look on their faces. They tell us to get dressed in everyday clothes as they deal with the bars on our windows. Nodding our heads in agreement, I quickly close the curtains and start to put on a random pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Harry is following my example and just throws on any of his clothes that work.

Right as Harry pushes the curtains open again, there is a loud crash sound as the bars are taken off our windows. Honestly, at the moment I don’t care how they did that and instead focus on making sure there are no footsteps heading toward us. I hold my breath as I keep my ear pressed against the door while Harry opens the window. I don’t know how but there is no one coming to check on us which means everybody is asleep. A sigh of relief escapes me as the prankster twins climb out of the car and into our room. Unfortunately, I can’t remember which twin is which, but one of the twins starts to pick the lock on our door. Do I really want to know how they know that? Probably not.

Once the bedroom door is open, the twins and my brother leave to go grab the trunks and I continue to place the things in the car that we will need. The first thing that I put in there is Hedwig and then I just place our toothbrushes and hairbrushes in there. Right as I’m about to grab clothes, I remember that we have clothes in our trunks which just need to be washed. Looking around the room one more time, I smile in satisfaction and crawl through the window into the flying car. Sitting behind the Weasel as he holds onto the stirring wheel, I hug him from behind while thanking him inside my head. Even though he doesn’t hear me, I think he got the message because he whispers a ‘you’re welcome’ while hiding his blush as best as he can. Laughing silently, I sit in the car and wait for the others to return.

Five minutes later, the twins and Harry return to the room with both of our trunks. To the best of his ability, Ron pulls the car around until the car’s trunk is facing them. I swear, we are all ninjas because nobody has gotten to check on us yet. Sadly, right after I think that I hear Vernon rush toward our bedroom. Why did he wake up? Did he hear us? Can we go any faster? Those questions are racing through my mind as the car is pulled to its side so everybody can get in. As Ron slides back into the passenger seat, both twins bolt into the car, one in the driver seat and one in the back next to me, which only leaves my brother. He starts to crawl on the desk when the bedroom door is thrown open by Uncle Vernon.

“Petunia, they’re escaping!” he shouts and rushes toward my brother. I scream inside my head as he grabs onto Harry’s ankle. Fred and Ron hold onto my brother as I hold onto George’s shoulder.

“Let go of me!” my brother shouts as he tries to yank his leg into the car.

“No! You two and that bloody pigeon aren’t going anywhere!” he replies as he tugs on Harry’s ankle. I slap George’s shoulder will pointing away from the house and he nods his head while slamming on the gas. With the force of both my brother and the car, big brother’s foot is finally released but it also knocks our uncle out the bedroom window and towards the ground below. A gasp escapes me as I quickly turn around as we fly away, and thankfully I notice that he is getting back up. I may hate this family, but it doesn’t mean that I want them to die or anything.

After being safely reassured that we didn’t just commit murder, I turn around and look through the windows. With all the commotion at an end, I can finally relax and enjoy the idea that we are in a flying car right now. A smile appears on my face at the idea that we are finally free from that family, and I lean against Fred’s shoulder as I slowly start to get drowsy. Okay, this whole getting tired from overexertion and powerful magic is starting to become really annoying. Unfortunately, I can’t do anything about it, and I start to drift off to sleep with the pleasant idea that I’m no longer a caged bird.


	2. Weasley Burrow

Quick Note:  _This slant typing means Anastasia is speaking through the mind link. :-)_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my original characters. This is made for my entertainment and for the entertainment of the fan fiction community!** _

A handshaking me awake makes me open my eyes before swiftly closing them from the direct sunlight. Finally, after a few seconds, I open my eyes again and move my head from leaning against the car window. The sun is high enough in the sky that people are probably eating breakfast by now. Turning to my left, I notice that everyone is already awake and look like they have been awake for a while now. I stretch and yawn before looking towards the ground underneath the flying car. We are far into the countryside and there aren’t any houses except for one.

This one house looks like it could be in the Alice in Wonderland fairytale. The house looks like it has been constructed on over time because you can see the original shack of a house. Next is a tower built behind the shack and is connected to another two-story tower that is sitting on top of the original shack. Somehow that entire building is connected together to form one giant misshapen house.

Grabbing Fred’s sleeve, I give it a couple tugs before he looks at me. Smiling, I point at the house and then draw a question mark in the air. He must have understood what I am asking because he nods his head while giving one of his famous smiles.

“That house, my dear friend, is where we are going,” he says, and I clap excitedly as I watch the house get closer to us. The car descends toward the dirt road and, unfortunately, George lands the car with a thud. We swerve to the side to avoid the pig pen that is in front of the house. Thankfully, right after we swerve the car stops and with excitement coursing through me, I quickly get out of the car.

“Anastasia, welcome to the Weasley Burrow,” George says after getting out of the driver seat and he wraps his arm around my shoulders. I smile while heading towards the first door that I see. Sadly, I don’t get very far before the twins stop me from entering the house.

“We have-,” Fred starts to say, and George finishes his sentence.

“To be quiet,” he says, and I cock my head to the side while wondering why we have to be silent.

“We didn’t-,”

“Tell anyone that-,”

“We left,” Fred finishes, and I give them a disapproving look, but I agree with their one request. Silently holding my brother’s hand, we walk in-between the twins with Ron in front of us.

Fred silently opens the kitchen door and looks around before gesturing for the rest of us to enter. I look over at Ron as we pass him in the kitchen and he already has a scared look on his face. I am curious about who he is afraid of; His mom or his dad. Fred keeps shushing us as he closes the door once everybody is inside. I hear something to my left and I glance over to find a brush cleaning a pan all by itself. I need to learn this spell for whenever I have chores because that can definitely save a lot of time. Looking at my brother, I nod my head towards the self-cleaning pan and he nods his head with a smile. Noticing something else in the house, Harry gently tugs me toward the center of the room.

In the center of the room is a blue and brown grandfather clock that looks antique. A smile appears on my face at the thought of something antique because I always have a slight fondness for old, antique looking things like typewriters, chairs, and even dolls. Looking at the face of the clock, I assume that I’m going to see the time but for once, in the case of a clock, I’m wrong. Instead of seeing time, I see a bunch of handles and each handle has a locket size picture of a Weasley family member. As Harry and I are looking at the clock, three handles start to move and of course, they are the ones with Ron’s face, Fred’s face, and George’s face. The handles with their faces stop underneath the label that says home and I awe at how cool that is. I mean, a clock that tells you where all your family members are at seem pretty useful.

Turning my head to my left side, I notice something that is also really cool and useful. Tugging on my brother’s hand, we walk over to a chair with yarn on it and around it. A scarf is hanging in the air above the chair like there is an invisible person sitting there. The scarf is knitting itself and I smile at the idea of how easier it would be to make your own clothes.

“It’s not much, but it’s home,” Ron says, and I smile at the idea of a home. The closest home we, my brother and I, have is Hogwarts. The Dursley residence is our house but not our home. I must have looked sad because I feel someone squeezing my hand and I turn to notice my brother giving me a smile.

“I think it’s brilliant,” he says, and I nod my head in agreement. Before anyone can do anything else, I hear some clothes rustling and quick footsteps coming toward us. Mrs. Weasley, or Molly, rushes out and stands behind the self-knitting scarf chair while looking at the ginger siblings with anger. My question from earlier is now answered and I realize that Ron is afraid of his mom.

“Where have you been?” she shouts while looking at them and I huddle behind my big brother from slight fear. Even though she is wearing a homely sweater dress, she is still scary when she is angry. I glance at the twins and Ron, and they all quickly hide some kind of biscuit behind their backs when they noticed that she is standing in front of them. Honestly, I’ve never had someone like a mother yell at me or someone I know and I’m serious when I say that. The only mom that I know is Petunia and she would never yell at her son.

“Harry, Anastasia, how wonderful to see you, dears,” Molly says in a calm manner, and it breaks me out of my thinking. I give her a small smile while staying behind Harry. How does she go from yelling one second to being nice and kind the next? She walks up to us and turns back to her sons with a stern look on her face.

“Beds empty. No note. Car gone!” she takes her yelling down a couple of notches but is still yelling at them, “You could have died! You could have been seen!” All three of the Weasley children lower their heads in shame and Molly turns to us with a soft smile on her face.

“Of course, I don’t blame you, dears,” she says and finally one of the children, Ron, looks up at his mom with a sad look on his face.

“They were starving them, mom. There were bars on their windows,” Ron tries to get out of being scolded and I notice the twins nodding their heads at their younger brother’s words. Sadly, he is right, and I nod my head as well. Molly doesn’t look too fazed by what they said and points her finger at the Weasel.

“You best hope I don’t put bars on your windows, Ronald Weasley,” she says, and his eyes grow wide along with the twins. I can understand why she is so mad at them. I mean, if my sons just disappeared one night and didn’t come back until the next morning, I would be angry too.

Molly turns to my brother and me and informs us that it is time for breakfast. She doesn’t seem too fazed by a lot of things and it honestly is kind of nice to not have someone that overdoes things besides being overprotective. She guides us over to the long dining table and I sit next to my brother who is sitting next to the head of the table. Ron sits next to me while the twins sit in front of us and Molly starts serving the food. My mouth waters at the sight and smell of sausage and eggs.

As we start to eat our food, I hear some footsteps rushing down the stairs and from how light they are I can assume that it is a little child. Well, I am somewhat right when a girl who seems to be a year or two younger than us comes rushing into the kitchen with her pajamas and bathrobe on. From the fact that she has ginger hair and is in the Weasley home, this must be the youngest Weasley offspring. Oh, right! I remember her from last year when Harry and I first went through Platform 9 ¾! She doesn’t seem to have noticed the two uninvited guests and only focuses on her mom.

“Mommy, have you seen my jumper?” the little girl asks Molly.

“Yes, dear, it was on the cat,” Molly replies and a question pops into my mind. Why was her jumper on the cat? Wait! Where is this cat?! I want to pet a cat! Anyway, after Molly tells the little Weasley where her jumper is at, she finally notices my brother and I. Right as she notices my brother her eyes grow wide and my head tilts to the side while wondering why she is scared or nervous.

“Hello!” my brother cheerfully says, but the girl backs away slowly before turning around and running up the stairs. I turn back to the others at the table while gesturing at the stairs. My brother also turns back to everyone else, “Did I do something wrong?”

“Ginny, and she’s been talking about you all summer. A bit annoying, really,” Ron replies and I nod my heading in understand. Little Ginny Weasley has a crush on my big brother. A chuckle escapes my lips and I turn back to eating my food. I don’t think I have ever had a crush on anyone before. I wonder what it is like to have a crush. Will I ever have one? Yeah. I continue to eat my food, I will definitely have one.

“Morning, Weasleys!” a man’s voice makes me look up towards the kitchen door. An older looking gentleman with ginger hair and a dark green suit walks through the door while closing it behind him. Every single Weasley offspring says, ‘Good morning, dad,” while Molly says, “Good morning, Arthur!” This must be the father of the twins and apparently, his name is Arthur Weasley. The man doesn’t seem to notice my brother and I while he moves around the kitchen.

“What a night, nine raids! Nine!” the man says, and I look over at the twins with a questioning look.

“Raids?” Harry asks Ron and he finishes eating the food in his mouth before explaining it to us.

“Dad works in the Ministry of Magic in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts,” he says, and I nod my head while turning back to Arthur. It makes sense why he is wearing a suit then because if you work in the Ministry of Magic you must be more sharped dress then in other jobs.

He finally sits down at the head of the table and smiles at each of his kids before stopping on me and Harry. His smile slips slightly but continues to be polite.

“Who are you two?” Arthur asks us, and I smile while I nudge big brother on the side. He looks up from his plate and notices that Arthur is talking to us.

“Oh! Sorry, sir. I’m Harry, Harry Potter, and this is my sister, Anastasia,” he says, and I’m proud of how polite my brother is. After Harry says my name, I hold out my hand for him to shake and then go back to my food. I usually would be politer and not eat when an adult is talking to me, but I’m so hungry from not eating as much at the Dursley’s residence.

“Good Lord! Are you two really?” he asks with amazement on his face. My brother and I nod our heads while I silently giggle at the expression on his face. “Well, Ron and the twins have told us all about you two, of course. When did they get here?” he asks his family as he starts to dig into his breakfast. Movement from behind me makes me glance over and I realize that Molly is looking at her husband with anger from earlier coming back to her.

“This morning,” she says while looking at her sons before focusing on her husband again, “Your sons flew that enchanted car to Surrey and back last night.” After saying that she turns back to the stove, and I look over to her husband to see him looking up from his plate. Surprisingly, Arthur doesn’t look angry but more excited at the idea of someone flying the enchanted car.

“Really? How did it go?” he asks us, and everyone starts to say how amazing it was. That is until Molly quickly turns around and slaps her husband’s shoulder in a warning manner. Right after she slaps him, he stutters while backtracking what he says and tries to fix it. My brother and I look down while trying not to laugh and focus back on our breakfast. Once Molly turns back around to the stove, Arthur focuses on Harry while I continue to eat.

“Now, Harry, you must know all about Muggles. Tell me, what exactly is the function of a rubber duck?” he asks while putting food in his mouth. I stop while laughing at his curiosity, but then I start to think about what people actually use a rubber duck for. How can you explain the function of a rubber duck without overthinking it? I turn back to my brother with a smirk on my face.

_“Yes, brother. Tell us what the function of a rubber duck,”_ I tell him, and he half-heartedly glares at me before turning back to Arthur. Unfortunately, before he can start to explain the function, a screech from an owl makes all of us turn towards the open window.

“That must be Errol with the post,” Molly says as we watch a gray owl with letters in its beak. He continues flying at a fast speed towards the kitchen, and worry starts to creep into my mind. The owl isn’t slowing down nor is it moving to its left, so it can enter through the open window. In fact, as I continue to watch the bird, Errol flies straight into the closed window with a thump. My eyes widen in shock as I jump up from my chair.

“Don’t worry-,” Fred starts to say when he notices my worried expression.

“He does that-,”

“All the time,” Fred finishes, and I hesitantly sit back down. My eyes continue to focus on the owl while Percy gets up to grab the mail. Wait! When did Percy get here?! I honestly didn’t even notice that he was here because he didn’t talk at all. Thankfully, as Percy is grabbing the mail from Errol the bird stands back up and sits on the windowsill. Well, the bird seems to be alright again, and with that thought, my worries start to slip away. As I continue with my breakfast, I watch Percy open the letter and I notice that it has the Hogwarts crest on the back.

“It’s our Hogwarts letters. They’ve sent us Harry’s and Anastasia’s as well,” he says while handing everybody their letter.

Gently, I take mine from the eldest Weasley sibling at the table and glance at the list of supplies that I will be needing. The list reads:

**The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk**

**Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart**

Wow! That is a lot of books by the same person. In my opinion, these books sound like those cheesy novels that you can find in muggle schools. As I continue to read, I hear George in the background telling his parents that the supply list will not be cheap. My brain stops thinking momentarily when I realize that he is right. I don’t want to use all that money that my parents left behind because, honestly, I don’t feel well with the idea of even using their money. That money was to be used for the whole family including them, but because of that one horrible wizard that money is being used for Harry and me. Only for Harry and me. If I could, I wouldn’t use that money but, unfortunately, I need to keep using it in order to survive the wizarding world. A tight knot forms in the pit of my stomach and guilt starts to eat its way through me. Big brother must have noticed my discomfort because he holds my hand while silently asking me what is wrong.

“ _I feel guilty for using our parent’s money. It was meant for all of us and now we can’t do that. We use it for ourselves and they are not able to use it at all. That thought doesn’t sit well with me, big brother,”_ I tell him, and he squeezes my hand while Molly gently takes my supply list, so she can read what we will need. While everyone else is busy reading the school letters, Harry takes the opportunity to whisper to me.

“Sister, I understand how you feel. Honestly, I feel bad as well, but I know for a fact that they would have wanted us to use that money for our school supplies. Besides, we haven’t used the money for anything other than school supplies. They left us that money to help us even when they are not here,” he whispers, and I almost want to cry. Godric, if it isn’t for the fact that I’m sitting at the table surrounded by other people, I would be crying at this point. Big brother is right, but I still have that knot in my stomach. Nodding my head at his words, I sigh before giving him a sad smile before tuning back into supply talk with the Weasley family.

“There’s only one place we’re going to get all of this...Diagon Alley,” Molly says, and I nod my head at her words. A smile appears on my face at the thought of going back to Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley is almost as magical as Hogwarts. Unfortunately, we are not going to Diagon Alley today, but that just means that when we finally do go to that wonderful place, I’m just going to be even more excited!

Sadly, that day didn’t come for two weeks and by this point, I almost forgot about our shopping trip. Ginny, who has been kind enough to share her room with me, woke me up this morning with her purple cloak on and excitement written all over her face. This leads me to where I am now which is in the middle of the Weasley living room with my Hogwarts cloak on with the rest of the ginger family. Harry is holding my right hand while my left hand is being held by Ginny. Ever since my brother and I came here, I learned that Ginny is really a sweet girl that definitely has a crush on my brother.

Looking around, I notice that all of the Weasley siblings, besides Ginny, is wearing their Gryffindor cloaks and my brother is also wearing his. I kind of feel out of place with my green Slytherin cloak. Don’t get me wrong, I would not change my house at this point because I have Draco, but I still feel weird being in a room full of lions, even Molly and Arthur were in Gryffindor.

“Here we are! Harry, Anastasia, one of you go first,” Molly says to us and I look at my brother in confusion. What are we supposed to do? From the look on my brother’s face, I can safely assume that Harry has no idea what we are supposed to do either. Thankfully, big brother looks over at his friend and Ron decides to help us out.

“But they have never traveled by Floo powder before, Mom,” Ron says, and I look over at the twins with a questioning look on my face. What in the name of Salazar is Floo powder? They both smirk at me while pointing towards the fireplace like ‘keep watching and you will find out’. Okay, they are not a big help at all. I notice that Molly nods her head in understanding before directing her attention to her youngest son.

“You go first, Ron, so that Harry and Anastasia can see how it’s done,” she tells him while motioning him forward. I watch as Ron walks past us and into the fireplace. What is he doing? Once he is inside the large fireplace, Molly holds out a small pot of gray ash. After Ron takes a handful of the ash, the two adult Weasleys push us away from the fireplace until we are at a safe distance away from it. Right as we are safely away from Ron, he holds his hand, that is holding the ash, up in front of him until it is level with his face.

“Diagon Alley!” he shouts and then throws the ash down to his feet. As soon as the ash touches the ground, green flames engulf his entire body and my eyes widen in shock. Is Ron being burned alive right in front of me?! He isn’t screaming or anything, but his body is engulfed IN FLAMES!!! As suddenly as the flames appeared, they quickly disappear along with Ron himself. Right after the flames disappear, Molly moves back towards the fireplace with a smile on her face.

“You see? It’s quite easy, dears. Don’t be afraid. Harry, you’re first,” she says while gesturing him forward. Holding onto my brother, I shake my head while imagining my brother in flames. I don’t want to see that. I think my brother is quickly realizing that I will not let him go because he looks back at Molly while asking if it is okay if we go together. Thankfully, she nods her head and we both go inside the fireplace. Harry grabs the Floo powder and I link my arm with his. Looking up at my brother, I realize that he has a scared look on his face and I squeeze his arm in slight reassurance. He gives me a slight smile before glancing at everyone.

“Diagonally,” my brother mispronounces the word before throwing the powder down at our feet. This definitely is not going to be good. I watch as Slytherin green flames surround us and we are quickly taken away from the Weasley house.

We are going so fast that it is bothering my stomach and I can’t even look around anymore. All of the movement and the stress of not knowing where we are going takes a toll on my body. Leaning against my brother, I turn my head and hide my face against his arm. After what feels like an hour but was most likely two minutes, I hear my brother tell me to jump and when we did I feel something hard hit my head. That one hard hit sends my mind into a quick nap that I absolutely don’t mind having.


	3. Knockturn Alley

**NOTE: Bold = Anastasia's written response** _Slanted = Anastasia's mind-link response_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my original characters. This is made for my entertainment and for the entertainment of the fan fiction community!** _

My brother’s voice makes my head pound in pain. Groaning slightly from the discomfort, I hold onto my head as I sit up from the floor. Why do I always end up in pain? The throbbing starts to slowly drain away as I continue to massage my head. While I continue to rub my head, Harry’s voice gradually increases in volume as the fog surrounding my brain diminishes.

“Sister? Are you alright?” my brother’s voice finally speaks clearly. Nodding my head, I notice that his hand is outstretched for me and I groan as he helps me up. I smack his arm after stabilizing myself on my own feet. “Ow! What was that for?”

“ _That was for not speaking clearly while we were back at the Weasley Burrow,”_ I tell him, and he rolls his eyes. Sighing, I take this opportunity to look around the room that we have fallen into. Okay, this room is pretty creepy!

The room is dark and eerie with an aura of mystery surrounding the entire place. There are display cases all around the room and the entire place is curtained by a layer of darkness. A gasp flies out of my mouth when I notice what is inside of the glass display boxes. Inside of the display case in front of me, there are different mummified heads with a strand of dark hair or just baldness. What kind of shop has heads for merchandise?!? I definitely would never have come to this kind of shop unless, of course, it is by accident like right now. Turning away from the heads, I notice that there is a layer of dust around everything besides the front desk that holds the cash register.

“ _Um, big brother? I don’t think that we should be here,”_ I whisper through the mind link. I notice that he nods his head, but he continues to look around the store. I watch my brother, who has dust on him from earlier, walk over to the other side of the small store. He stops in front of the mantelpiece and notices that there is a large jar filled with more of those heads. Big brother lightly knocks on the jar before walking to his left. Following behind him, I start to dust him off while he looks at a mummified hand that is attached to a board. As I continue to get the dust off him, he gasps in surprise and I instantly look up in alarm. The hand is holding a death grip on my brother, and I try to help my brother get his hand out of the thing’s grip. Finally, after a few more tugs we get his arm away from that horrible invention.

Unfortunately, before I can check to see if he is alright he pushes my hands away and runs to the back of the store. He quickly hides inside an iron maiden looking coffin while I look in his direction in confusion. The sound of the bell ringing above the door makes my entire body go rigid for a split second. As quickly as possible, I start to run to a hiding place but as my luck will have it, I slip on my Slytherin cloak and end up banging my head against the floor. Oh, come on! I just got rid of the pain in my head from earlier and now this! A painfilled groan escapes my lips while I hold my head in my hands and tears fill my eyes. After the groan leaves my body, I remember that someone has just entered this weird shop.

“Ana?” a familiar voice calls out directly above me. Slowly, I open my eyes and the only thing that I can clearly see is the ash blonde hair. Sniffling, I give Draco a somewhat smile as I feel a warm liquid spread across my hands. As tears roll down my face, I take a look at my hands and I realize that there is blood on them. Welp! I have officially gone to a whole new level on wounds that I get from accidents.

“Oh, Godric! Are you okay, Ana?!” Draco asks me as he grabs my arms to help me stand up. I slowly shake my head while I place my hands on the back of my head. As I am applying pressure to the wound, I watch as he walks around me to look at the back of my head. He gently moves my hands away and looks a little bit before letting out a sigh of relief. “Don’t worry. The wound isn’t severe or anything. I think that if you keep pressure on it, it should stop bleeding in a moment.” I nod my head as I go back to what I was doing before.

As he goes back to being in front of me, I hear the door open again and I look over to see who it is. A man with long ash blonde hair and a cane with a snake’s head as the handle walks into the shop. Oh, my Salazar! This must be Draco’s father and I am about to meet him like this! Draco must have seen how nervous I am because he gives me a reassuring smile before looking at his father.

“Draco, who is this?” his father asks as he walks up to us. I give him a friendly smile as my friend introduces us.

“Father, this is my best friend, Anastasia Potter. Ana, this is my father, Lucius Malfoy,” he says, and I give him a polite nod while I check to see if the bleeding has stopped. Please, don’t be bleeding anymore! Thankfully, at this point, it is barely bleeding! Taking this opportunity, I grab the notepad and muggle pen from my back pocket.

“ **Hello, Mr. Malfoy!** ” I say to him and he nods his head before a look of realization crosses his face.

“Oh, yes. Draco has talked about you. You are the girl that can’t talk,” he says, and I nod my head in confirmation. Honestly, I don’t mind if that is how he remembers me as long as he remembers. I smile at Draco as he looks away in embarrassment. I wonder why he is embarrassed because we are best friends! Of course, we are going to talk about each other a lot. For me especially because I think of him as another brother of mine. Trying to get the attention off himself, Draco turns back to me with confusion on his face.

“Ana, why are you here?” he asks me, and I instantly think of my brother who is still hiding from them. Giving them a sheepish smile, I point at the fireplace while writing down a slightly different experience then what actually happened.

“ **Well, my brother and I were using floo powder for the first time, and, unfortunately, while we were heading towards our destination, I accidentally slipped from my brother’s grasp. When we separated, I ended up landing here and I have no idea where ‘here’ is,** ” I tell them while starting to dust myself off. No one says anything for a few moments before Draco hugs me unexpectedly. He laughs at my story while telling me that this happens to everyone when traveling through floo powder for the first time. Unfortunately, as Draco and I are hugging, I feel a large bulge hitting my side and I pull away to find out that Draco is holding a chest of some sort.

“ **Where are we, Draco?** ” I ask him, but Mr. Malfoy answers my question instead.

“We are in a shop in Knockturn Alley,” he says with elegance. Sadly, before we can speak further on the subject of where we are, an older gentleman walks out from the back of the store and greets the Malfoys as if they come here often.

“Ah! Mr. Malfoy! It is a pleasure to see you again,” he says, and I decide to leave them to their business by looking around the store. I can tell that Draco is about to follow me as well until the shopkeeper noticed him, “and young Master Malfoy as well. Welcome!”

Thankfully, the shopkeeper didn’t notice me because honestly, he kind of creeps me out. He and this store definitely make me want to run far away from this scary darkness. Tuning their conversation out, I walk to the front of the shop and I peer out the front window. The outside world doesn’t look any better than the shop. Both environments make me very uncomfortable and want to hide away from the scary looking people. Why are the Malfoys in a place like this?

“Draco!” Mr. Malfoy calls out to my best friend. I turn away from the window and watch as my friend places the chest on the counter. After he carefully sets the chest down, he quickly turns around and walks up to me with a hesitant smile, almost as if he shouldn’t be smiling in front of others.

“What do you think of the shop, Ana?” my friend asks me, and I glance around the room, my eyes briefly stop at Harry’s hiding place, before finishing my assessment of the place. Turning back to my friend, I quickly write down my feelings on this entire Alley that we are in.

“ **Honestly, this entire place scares me, and I don’t want to be here. The people are even creepy and there doesn’t seem to be any happiness here. There is only fear, and those that feed off of fear,** ” I show him, and he nods his head. After I am sure that he has read my message, I carefully put my writing materials back inside my pockets, and I look out the window again. A shiver of fear crawls up my spine when I notice that one of the people outside is staring at me. A warm hand enveloping mine makes me look at my friend, who is giving me a smile that tells me that I am safe, and I give him a nod of trust as a way of saying that I trust him.

“Why didn’t you answer any of my letters?” his sudden question makes my eyes widen in shock before thinking about that stupid house-elf. As Dobby passes through my brain, his warning starts blaring in my ears and I wonder if I should inform Draco about the house-elf. Um, I don’t think I should because I feel like if I tell Draco about the danger warning then he might make me stay away from Hogwarts this year. Well, I mean he can’t really stop me, but I don’t want to make my best friend, who is basically a brother, become disappointed in me for not heeding the warning. Mentally, I shake my head before pulling my hand away from his and quickly grab my writing materials again.

“Come, Draco! We are leaving! Come along as well, Ms. Potter,” Lucius tells us as he walks out the door. With Draco in front of me, I start to write my response while walking safely behind the Malfoys. After, with some difficulty, writing out my response, I pull on my fellow Slytherin’s sleeve.

“ **I’m sorry that I couldn’t write to you. My aunt and uncle have kept Harry’s owl in a locked cage. Even if they did let Hedwig out of her cage, she still wouldn’t be able to leave,** ” I tell him and with a lot of hesitation I write out the rest of my experience at my relative’s house. “ **They put bars on our windows and we weren’t allowed to leave our room. Draco! It was horrible! I had nightmares and shed a lot of tears. Thankfully, the Weasel and the twins came and saved us!** ” I end my writing on a happy note. I didn’t mean to write down all of those facts, but I believe that he is my best friend and he deserves to know what happened.

After Draco finishes reading my explanation, a shout escapes his lips as he stops walking. He turns to me with anger on his face and I flinch away a little bit out of fear. Maybe, I shouldn’t have told him the entire truth.

“What do you mean that they put bars on your windows?! Was it like this during the entire summer?!” he nearly shouts, and I notice that the creepy people are starting to stare. Quickly, I shake my head no and start to scribble down my response. As I nearly throw the paper at my friend after finishing, I notice that Mr. Malfoy is also reading my response. Oh, no! I shouldn’t have said anything!

“ **No! It wasn’t like that during the entire summer break. Unfortunately, towards the end of the break, we made them angry and a letter was sent to us about regarding some minor magic that has been made in the house. In the letter, it reminded us that we aren’t supposed to do magic outside of school and that’s when my relatives realized that they didn’t have to be afraid of us. Then they put the bars on our windows and wouldn’t let us out of our room,** ” I tell them, and I still remember them getting the letter. It was delivered a day after Dobby ruined the party and that same day Vernon put metal bars on the windows. He didn’t even waste any time in making our lives even more miserable than they already were.

A warm hug brings me out of my dark memories, and I realize that there are a few tears rolling down my cheeks. Draco is trying to reassure me as he continues to hug me, and I hug him back as tightly as possible. My emotions are jumbled up at the moment that I just need to hug my best friend and enjoy the moment.

“Miss. Potter, what your relatives did was very unnecessary. Especially, if all you did was make them angry. Ignorant muggles,” Mr. Malfoy says to me as he let Draco out of the hug. After he says that, Lucius looks around us as if he is thinking about something. Finally, he turns his attention back onto me and glances at my hand that is holding his son’s, “If you would like, during the breaks you can come visit and may even stay at the Malfoy Manor.”

Draco starts getting excited at the thought of me visiting and staying with them, while my eyes grow large at the idea of seeing my friend’s house. This is the first time that ever been invited to even go to a friend’s house. Well, let’s face it, I’ve never even had a friend before meeting Draco. Happiness swells up inside my small body to the point that I let go of Draco’s hand and throw my arms around Mr. Malfoy. After hugging him for a split second, during which Draco’s father’s body went rigid, I quickly let go with a huge smile on my face. My head is going up and down so fast that I start to worry that it might pop off. Draco laughs at my enthusiasm and grabs my hand again. Draco, Mr. Malfoy, and I walk out of the darkness and into my favorite on this planet with giant smiles on two of our faces. Things are starting to look up for this new year!


	4. Mr. Goldilocks

**NOTE: Bold = Anastasia's written response** _Slanted = Anastasia's mind-link response_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my original characters. This is made for my entertainment and for the entertainment of the fan fiction community!** _

I follow Draco and Mr. Malfoy through Knockturn Alley’s dark and scary road until we finally pass into Diagon Alley. A sigh of relief escapes me as we pass into the lighter and happier place than that other one. Unfortunately, Diagon Alley isn’t as bare as Knockturn Alley and that is something that I don’t really prefer. I mean, I love watching happy people and being around people, but I don’t like being in a large crowd that could potentially give me claustrophobia.

Draco notices that we could easily lose each other and grabs my hand to make sure that I am with them. I smile at him and move behind him so that way we are in a line with Mr. Malfoy in the front, breaking the sea of people. I know that I should go look for my brother and the Weasleys, but honestly, I just want to spend time with my best friend and his father. Also, I want to leave Mr. Malfoy with a good impression, because I am his only son’s best friend.

“So, Ana,” Draco calls out to me, and I look at him with a questioning glance, “Are you here to get Hogwarts supplies as well?” I nod my head happily, and I start to bounce around with excitement. He laughs at my childness and has a thoughtful expression on his face. Before I can ask him what he is thinking about, he turns back around and tugs on Mr. Malfoy’s sleeve. The older Malfoy looks down with a slightly annoyed expression on his face, but Draco seems like he doesn’t notice. They start to whisper to each other or I should say they are speaking to each other in normal volumes because everyone else is basically being super loud. Not wanting to interrupt them, I focus on the storefronts as we pass each magical store.

“Ms. Potter,” Mr. Malfoy disrupts my window shopping, and I quickly look up at the tall man. “Would you like to go supply shopping with us? Draco would love if you would join us,” Right after he asks me, I immediately want to say yes, but at the same time I am supposed to be here with the Weasleys and I don’t want them to worry about my absence for the entire day. Sighing, I take out my notepad and tell them my decision.

“ **I would love to join you two, but I am actually supposed to be here with the Weasleys and I don’t want them wondering where I am the entire time,** ” I tell them, and Draco looks instantly disappointed. Guilt quickly rises through me, and I quickly backtrack my earlier statement. “ **Well, I can join you two, but we need to let the Weasleys know.** ”

Right after the young blonde reads my last sentence, a grin appears on his face and he grabs my hand again. Sadly, I don’t know where the ginger family is at, and I tell the Malfoys that as well. My blonde friend seems eager to go and find them but is stopped by his father.

“Hold on, Draco,” Mr. Malfoy calls out while sharply putting his cane in front of the younger version of himself. My best friend quickly looks up at his father while having a slight hint of fear, “I have some business to do first then we can look for the Weasleys. For now, why don’t you and Ms. Potter go into Flourish and Blotts while I take care of my business.”

Draco and I agree to his request and quickly head into my favorite place in Diagon Alley. Oddly enough, when we enter the building that is usually empty and this time it is super crowded. I don’t mean that there was like twenty people, I actually mean there are probably hundreds in this small building. Making sure that we have each other, we quickly head up the staircase so that way we can get out of the crowd.

“ **What do you think is going on?** ” I ask Draco, who after reading my question, just shakes his head in reply. Sighing, I decided to look at the books that are laying on the stairs while Draco continues to watch the crowd. As I continue to look at the books, I hear a ripping sound behind me and I quickly turn around to find Draco tearing some pages out of a book. As quickly as possible, I grab the book out of his hands while shaking my head no with a frown on my face.

“Sorry, Ana,” Draco says to me while giving me a sheepish grin. I simply just roll my eyes while I try to not laugh at his behavior. I don’t want to encourage this type of behavior from any of my friends.

Right as I am about to go back to the books, I glance up at the door for a split second and my eyes don’t recognize who I just saw until a second later. A smile appears on my face as I realize that my brother has just arrived with my best friend, Hermione. While I start walking down the stairs, the crowd swallows Harry up and I end up losing him. Well, I guess I’ll wait to talk to him as he is leaving. Draco grabs my hand and pulls us up the stairs until we can finally see why everyone is here.

There is an older man with golden colored hair and light blue suit. He is giving the crowd a dazzling smile and is chuckling. Even from my place in the room, I can feel a pompous air rolling off him. Honestly, he doesn’t seem like someone that cares about other people and only cares about himself. Wait..What am I doing?! I can’t go around judging someone before even meeting them! Shame on me for doing that. I must admit though; this man is kind of cute. Wait...almost all the people in this bookstore are females and they all seem to be here for this man.

“ **Who is that man, Draco?** ” I ask my best friend.

“From what it says on his poster,” Draco starts to say while pointing out the obvious poster that I somehow overlooked, “This man is Gilderoy Lockhart.” I nod my head while turning my attention back to Goldilocks. Hey, even though I think he is cute that seems like a good nickname for this man. Why does his name sound so familiar? Quickly, I take out my supply list and look over the list of books that we need to get. This is the man that wrote almost every single book that we are using for textbooks this year. Maybe, his books will teach me something. I need to read them before school starts.

“Excuse me,” a man with a camera says to people as he pushes his way past the crowd. I watch the man as he struggles with all the giggling females that are just watching Goldilocks smile his charming smile. A smile appears on my face as the cameraman finally stands in front of Gilderoy and that’s when I notice that the ginger family is right behind him with my brother amongst them. The man starts to take pictures of Goldilocks and this celebrity doesn’t seem bothered by the bright flash at all.

As he starts to his left for the cameraman to get his better side, Lockhart briefly looks up from the camera and his eyes lock in on something or someone. His smile slowly slips from his face and he is serious instead of that confident air that was surrounding him a moment earlier.

“It can’t be...Harry Potter?” Goldilocks says, and I facepalm into Draco’s shoulder. I don’t know about big brother, but I would feel so awkward at the moment. Taking this opportunity, I hide behind Draco, because I definitely don’t want to be called out by this cute man.

Looking over Draco’s shoulder, I watch as the cameraman drags my big brother to Gilderoy’s side. I watch as the man starts to whisper in my brother’s ear before smiling at the camera again. My brother doesn’t seem to like all of this attention and definitely doesn’t want to be in front of the camera. As I continue to watch the exchange between this popular author and my brother, the man hands him his entire book collection for free. Oooo, I wonder if he will let me read those. The cameraman takes one last picture before rushing out of the bookstore.

Everyone starts to clap, and Goldilocks starts to autograph the females’ books. Finally, I slowly walk out from behind my best friend because the man is busy. Looking down, I notice that Draco’s hands are in fists and his entire body looks like it is tensed up.

“ **What is wrong, Draco?** ” I ask him, and he sighs as he releases the tension from his body.

“Nothing, Ana,” he says, but I quickly grab his arm and look at him. A sigh escapes his lips as he looks at me. “I just hate that Potter gets all of this attention.”

Nodding my head, I pat my friend on the shoulder as we start to walk down the stairs. Honestly, I don’t even notice the attention that my brother gets like he got from Goldilocks. As long as I am not a part of the spotlight then I usually don’t mind my brother having this kind of attention. Unfortunately, I know that Draco most likely doesn’t have that mindset and so I just continue to pat him on the back.

My best friend smiles briefly before heading down the stairs. Surprisingly, the cameraman, who I thought already left, rushes past us and out the door. Big brother and the Weasleys are heading to the door when Draco gets off the stairs and stands in front of them.

“I bet you just loved that, didn’t you, Potter?” he says, and anger quickly passes through me, but then I remember that he is just jealous. When someone is jealous they just need to release it out and, unfortunately, those same people sometimes say mean things during that release time. I grab his hand and give his hand a squeeze for reassurance. Draco briefly looks at me, but then continues his jealousy rant, “Famous Harry Potter. Can’t even go into a bookshop without making the front page.” Now, that is just not true. This has been the only time that he has gone in here and now is most likely going to be on the front page.

Little Ginny gives Draco a not so scary glare and steps toward him. He looks down at her as she says, “Leave him alone.” She is too adorable to take seriously, and I think my friend agrees with me because a smirk appears on his face.

“Look, Ana. Your brother got himself a girlfriend,” he says, and I smile slightly at Ginny. Honestly, I think her crush on my brother is cute, but I don’t know if they would make a good couple. My brother doesn’t even find anyone cute at the moment and probably won’t think so for quite a while.

Right after Draco finishes his sentence, a cane is placed on Draco’s shoulder. Turning my head, I notice that Mr. Malfoy is standing behind us, and I quickly move to my brother’s side while Draco moves off to his father’s side.

“Now, now, Draco, play nicely,” Mr. Malfoy says to his son before looking at us. Giving him a smile, I watch as he interacts with my brother for the first time. He gives me a simple smirk before looking at big brother and saying to him, “Mr. Potter. Lucius Malfoy, we meet at last.” He holds his hand out towards my brother, and he looks at it briefly before shaking it. Mr. Malfoy takes this opportunity to pull my brother close and look at his legendary scar, his words not mine.

“Your scar is legendary,” he simply says before glancing at my brother again, “Well, so is the wizard that gave it to you.” My brother quickly steps back, and my mood instantly drops into my stomach. That same wizard had made both of us into orphans. He is nothing more than a despicable being. Harry must have felt how sad my mood became because he wraps his arm around my shoulders. Big brother repeats what I thought to Mr. Malfoy as Hermione walks up next to myself and Draco.

“You must be very brave for saying his name, or very foolish,” Mr. Malfoy says after my brother says Voldemort’s name. I don’t understand why people are so afraid of saying his name. It’s not like he will suddenly appear out of nowhere just because you say his name. Hermione agrees with me because she looks at Mr. Malfoy while saying:

“Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself,” she says, and he looks at her. He starts to say her name but looks at Draco for confirmation. We both nod our heads as he finishes his sentence.

“Your parents are muggles, aren’t they?” he asks her as he looks at her parents who are talking to Arthur. For a second, a frown appears on my face at the way he has said that word. What is so wrong with her parents being muggles? While he continues to talk to everyone, I open up my notepad and start to write my question for my blonde-haired friend.

“ **Does your father not like muggles or muggle-borns?** ” I show him the question and he briefly looks at it before sighing. He gently takes my hand and leads me up the stairs again. Once we are far enough away from everyone else, he turns around and looks like he is trying to figure out how to tell me.

“For a simple answer, yes, my father hates anything that deals with muggles,” he replies, and my eyes widen in shock. Draco must have noticed my shock because he quickly tries to justify his father’s hatred, “You have to understand that there are people who just don’t like muggles. Usually, those kinds of people are from the pure-blooded families that are in Slytherin. It’s just the way that it has always been.”

“ **Do you hate muggles too?** ” I ask my friends as my lip starts to quiver in sadness. It is never okay to dislike someone just because of their heritage. That isn’t right. He looks at me sadly, but he nods his head.

“That is how I was raised. Please, don’t hate me,” he says, and I nod my head. I can’t fault him for that because like he said he was raised to not like them. Giving him a sad smile, I hug him and look down at everyone else. Oh, Godric! I might hate that they dislike someone because they are related to muggles, but I understand that everyone also has their own opinions. The only thing that should matter to me is my own opinion because the only thing that I can change is my own opinion and nobody else.

After grabbing my hand again, we head back down the stairs and reunite with the rest of the group. Arthur Weasley is talking with Mr. Malfoy and from the tension in the room, I can safely say that they do not like each other. Mr. Malfoy glances at us and starts to talk to Arthur.

“Also, Draco wants Ms. Potter to join us on our supply shopping,” he says, and Arthur looks at me as if he is asking if I want to go. Quickly nodding my head, I watch as Mr. Malfoy turns around and walks out the shop. We walk past everyone and I wave at all of them. Draco looks at them with jealousy/anger still on his face before gently pulling me out the door. I hope that this will be the last time that I deal with this kind of situation.


	5. Going Back

**NOTE: Bold = Anastasia's written response** _Slanted = Anastasia's mind-link response_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my original characters. This is made for my entertainment and for the entertainment of the fan fiction community!** _

The morning light shining through my window makes me scrunch my eyes in protest to the light change. A sigh escapes my lips as I reluctantly open my eyes and peer out the window in my temporary room at the Burrow. My mind slowly recounts the school shopping trip with Draco and Mr. Malfoy. That day, a couple weeks ago, actually was a pretty fun day. Draco and I told each other jokes and at the end of the day, Mr. Malfoy took us to the ice cream shop in Diagon Alley. Remembering that day brings a smile to my face, and I slowly get up from my bed. Wait! Wait a second! Today is the day! Today, we are going back to Hogwarts!

Excitement bubbles up inside me, and I quickly rush around to put on my muggle clothes for the train station. A knock on my door makes me hurry up even more then I already am. As I am heading towards the door, I accidently stub my foot against my trunk and I shed a few tears from the pain. Taking a deep breath, I limp over to the door and find my big brother on the other side. I give him a smile while moving all my weight onto my other foot.

“What is wrong, sister?” he gently asks me after seeing the hurt look on my face.

“ _Nothing much, big brother. I only stubbed my foot against the school truck,_ ” I tell him, and he nods his head at my answer with a roll of his eyes. A smile appears on both of our faces as he grabs my arm and leads us down the stairs towards the loud kitchen. I can only assume that all the Weasleys are awake from the loud conversations that are coming from the breakfast table.

“Good morning, Harry, Anastasia,” Molly greets us when she notices us on the staircase, “Come sit down and eat before we head to the train station.”

I nod my head and sit down in the same sit that I sat at when I first got here. The twins are the last people down for breakfast. They ruffle my hair as they pass me to sit in their seats. I give them a playful glare as my happy mood starts to come back to me. During the time that my brother and I have been here, I have become closer to the ginger twins. We would make pranks and prank everyone in the Burrow. Fred and George are still the masters of pranks, but if I do say so myself, I’m starting to become good at it.

After almost choking on my food, and tapping my foot impatiently, everyone is ready to head to the train station. Thankfully, after what happened last time with the Floo powder, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley decided that we are going to take the flying car to the station. At first, I look at them with confusion before looking back at the small car that has the maximum capacity for six people including the driver when there is exactly nine of us. Before I can write down the problem, Molly takes out her wand and says a spell that I quickly recognized as the expansion spell. Oh, I get it now! Silently calling the very back, I immediately rush into the back seat and I notice that the twins sit with me. Smiling at them, I listen to their banter as everybody slowly starts to fill up the car. Finally, after what feels like forever, Arthur and Molly get into the very front of the car, and we fly our way towards the train station.

We trying to rush through the train station because we are going to be late getting through the barrier. Of course, the train station is just filled with muggles bustling about trying to get to their destinations, but all that does is make it even more of a challenge to get to the Hogwarts Express. Percy, who is far ahead of us, runs through the barrier between the muggle station and the wizarding station. Fred and George are about to run through the wall as well when they suddenly look back at me. Quickly, their signature smirks appear on their faces before linking their arms through mine. Before I can even think about asking them a question, the twins start to rush towards the wall and successfully dragging me along with them. Let me just say that it is hard to control the cart that has my luggage while being dragged forward.

Once the boys and I arrive onto the 9 ¾ platform, they finally let my arms go, and I give them the best glare I can muster, but all they did was laugh. Why can’t I scare anyone?! They ruffle my hair before we hear the rest of the Weasleys come through onto the platform. I watch as Ginny’s face lights up with excitement as she looks at the train, because this will be her first year at Hogwarts. Molly and Mr. Weasley walk through the entrance and guide Ginny to an empty compartment on the train.

Right as I go back to waiting for my brother and the Weasel, I hear my best friend calling my name. As I turn towards the voice, ash blonde hair takes over my entire vision as arms circle around my body. Giggling, I hug Draco back as I hear the ginger twins chuckling in the background. I continue to smile as he pulls away from the hug, and footsteps approaching us makes me look past my friend shoulders towards the two people behind him. I instantly recognize Mr. Malfoy from Diagon Alley, and the woman with dark brown hair that turns into ash blonde hair must be Mrs. Malfoy.

“Hello again, Miss Potter,” Mr. Malfoy greets me, and I give him a smile with a wave. Turning my attention to Draco’s mom, I give her the same treatment as his father.

“So, you are my son’s best friend. My name is Narcissa Malfoy, but you may call me, Narci,” Mrs. Malfoy tells me, and I nod my head while grabbing my notepad.

“ _It is very nice to meet you, Narci. It is an honor to meet my honoree brother’s mother!_ ” I show her the paper with a smile. She chuckles as she reads the last part with the honoree brother. Honestly, I do think of Draco as another big brother, but no one replaces my actual big brother. Narci looks back at me while showing Draco my response and pats my head. Before we could even talk more, the train whistles, letting everybody know that the Hogwarts Express is leaving very shortly.

Nervousness strikes through me as I look around to see if my brother and the Weasel arrived on the platform. Turning to look at the twins, I think that they already know what I am worried about because they put their arms around my shoulders.

“Don’t worry-,” George starts to reassure me.

“They will probably-,”

“Meet us at Hogwarts,” they finish together, and I nod my head at their words. Even though I know they will meet us at the school, it doesn’t change the fact that I am starting to get anxiety from not truly knowing where my brother is at.

All three boys start to guide me onto the train after we say goodbye to the two adult Malfoys. We walk through the train until I notice a compartment with only one familiar person inside. Before the twins and Draco can walk us past the space with Hermione in it, I quickly push the sliding door open and quickly sit next to my other best friend.

The brunette girl and I give each other a side hug while the twins and Draco sit on the other seats. As my friend starts to talk about the rest of her summer, I look around at all my friends and I honestly can’t believe how lucky I am to have this many friends. Just a year ago, I had no friends and the only person that cared for me is my brother. Now, I have four friends, and two places to call home: Hogwarts and Malfoy Manor. Well, I hope to call Malfoy Manor a home soon. I think that this might just be a good school year.


	6. A New Friend

**NOTE: Bold = Anastasia's written response** _Slanted = Anastasia's mind-link response_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my original characters. This is made for my entertainment and for the entertainment of the fan fiction community!** _

As the train starts to make its way into the last hour of the journey towards the school, the compartment is filled with my friends’ laughter and talk. A smile graces my face as I look out of the window and look at the beautiful green hills that are quickly going past us. In the back of my mind, a quiet voice keeps nagging me on how I need to know exactly where my brother is and see if he is alright. Honestly, I am still completely worried about my brother, but it is starting to get annoying when that is the only thing your brain will let you think about.

The sliding of the compartment door makes the entire room quickly fall silent, and I turn away from the window with the hope that the person coming into the room is my brother. Unfortunately, the person that opened the door is actually a girl and not my brother. From the nervous look on her face, my immediate thought is that this girl must be a first year. As I continue to observe her, I quickly notice that there are fresh tear stains on her face, and an overwhelming sadness creeps its way into my heart. Why has she been crying? Another thing that is plainly obvious to me, and most likely to everyone else, this girl is way too small for an eleven-year-old. In fact, she seems to be as tall as a six-year-old. Smiling gently at her, she continues to look around at everyone while giving them a hesitant smile.

“H-Hello,” she nervously says, and I grab my notepad.

“ **Hello, little one. Is there something that you need?** ” I ask her, and she messes with the hem of her large shirt. After reading my question, the girl nods her head while she continues to play with her shirt.

“Y-Yes, can I sit with you guys? I was sitting by myself, but then these people came in and started to make fun of my height,” the sweet girl asks me, and she honestly looks like she might cry if we say no. Before the rest of my friends can say anything, I quickly nod my head and I nudge Draco into moving until he is sitting next to the door. I also move to my left and pat the seat next to the window. This is most likely her first time at Hogwarts and that gives her the right to have the window seat. I can’t wait to see her reaction when she sees Hogwarts for the first time!

Once the door is closed and the girl is sitting down, I decided that now would be a good time to ask her what her name is. Of course, I don’t want to keep calling her girl within my mind. So, I neatly write down my question before passing it to her.

“O-Oh! My name is Christine Leandra Almar, but people call me Kitty,” the long-haired brunette says, and I nod my head. I smile and start to write my name down when Draco puts his hand on my shoulder. Stopping my movements, I look up at my honoree brother and he shakes his head.

“My name is Draco Malfoy and this is Anastasia Potter. The two gingers are Fred and George Weasley. Finally, the other girl with her nose in a book is Hermione Granger,” he introduces everyone, and everybody says hello. Well, Hermione quickly says hello before continuing the book that she has been reading for the last two hours now.

“Is this-,” George says and the other twin finishes the sentence.

“Your first year?” after the sentence is spoken, Kitty starts to nod her head albeit with some hesitancy. A bright smile consumes my face as I quickly write my excited response to your admission.

“ **Oh, you’ll just love Hogwarts! The staff is very friendly and helpful! Students are really nice, especially the Hufflepuffs and you already have five friends!** ” I tell her and she gives me a questioning look at the last sentence, but she quickly understands when I motion at all of us. Her nervous demeanor quickly disappears and a happy smile appears on her face. A thought crosses my mind, and swiftly write down my thought before showing it to my new friend. “ **If you keep looking out the window, Hogwarts shall appear in a few moments.** ”

Taking my advice, the small girl presses her face against the window without any hesitation. Quietly giggling at her behavior, I turn towards Draco and lean against him as my mind starts to become foggy from drowsiness. As the minutes continue to roll by, my eyes slowly close but right as I fall asleep I hear a gasp coming from the girl next to the window.

Someone shaking my sleeping body makes me slowly come back to reality from dreamland. Furiously blinking my sleep away, I look around and notice that Hermione and Kitty are no longer in the compartment. Slowly moving my head up, I look up questioningly at big brother Draco, and he smiles gently at me before gesturing for me to get up.

“We are almost there, Ana. You should go and put your robes on,” he tells me softly, and I slowly get up while nodding my head. Groggily, I grab my uniform from my trunk before heading towards the girl’s restroom on the train. Hermione and Kitty must be getting their uniforms on.

As I am about to step into the restroom, a girl with short black hair and Slytherin robes swings the restroom door outwards, which almost hit me in the face. Pansy looks at me and smirks as she steps out into the hallway.

“Sorry about that, freak,” she sneers, and my eyes widen with shock. W-Why would she call me a freak? She must have noticed my shock, because she smirks again and, without any hesitation, pushes me against the wall. Pain passes through my left shoulder and all the way down into my left wrist. A yelp escapes my lips as I try to stop my body from hitting the wall, but I think I might have ended up spraining my wrist. Tears pool up in my eyes which only makes Pansy laugh at me.

“I want you to stay away from my Dracy. He shouldn’t be spending his time with a freak like you,” she says before walking away leaving me to silently cry in the hallway. Without even caring at this point, I run back to the compartment that holds Draco and the twins.

Throwing the door open, my blurry eyesight briefly shows blonde hair before I throw my arms around my honoree big brother. His bare skin underneath my face brings me back to the reality that they were probably getting dressed and I am bothering them. I am about to pull away from Draco when I feel his arms hug me back while asking me what is wrong. Unfortunately, sobs are consuming my body making it hard to even think about writing down the events that just happened. Dra must have noticed my problem because he carefully sits us down and two more pairs of arms hugging make me feel safer. Fred and George rub my head while Draco continues to rub my back. Eventually, my sobs turn into sniffles and I can finally start to breathe normally.

“Now, do you want to tell us why you were crying?” Fred and George ask me at the same time. Sighing, I nod my head while shakily grabbing my notepad and pen. I scrawl down what happened before showing it to the three boys. After giving the paper to the boys, I keep my head down and focus on the carpeted floor. The compartment is filled with silence that seems to progress for a few minutes but is probably most likely just a few seconds. I am just waiting for the explosion of anger, but nothing came. Slowly, I look up from the floor and I glance at their faces.

Fred and George look as red as their ginger hair, and they look like they are ready to blow their tops off. I gulp slightly but then I remember that they aren’t angry at me. Before I can look at big brother Dra, he grabs a shirt and runs out of the compartment with the sliding door slamming shut behind him. Where is Dra going? Did I make him made for some reason? I write down these questions to the twins, and they immediately shake their heads.

“No, of course not. You can never make anyone angry-,” George says as he sits next to me and pulls me into his side. Fred calms down a little bit more before sitting down on my other side.

“I bet that he is on his way to go deal with a certain black-haired girl,” Fred says with a mischievous look in his eyes. I nod my head but then I feel material still in my hands. Glancing down at my hands, I realize that I still need to put my robes on. The twins must have noticed the same thing because they get up and grab the rest of their robes before telling me that I can change here, while they got to the boy’s restroom. After they leave, I fall to the ground and just think about everything that has happened today.

Maybe, if I try to spend more time with Pansy she will like me and want to be my friend. She probably had a bad day and is misunderstanding the relationship between Draco and I. If I explain that Draco is my honoree big brother, maybe she will apologize, and we can all be friends. With my mind made up, I slowly get back up and put on my Slytherin robes.

My friends and I are sitting in the Great Hall waiting for the first years to arrive in the boats. I am glancing across the hall towards the Gryffindor table hoping that I will find that familiar mop of black hair that my brother has, but no such luck. Big brother is still not here. Now, I’m going to start having a panic attack! Draco notices my look of panic and quickly puts his arm around my shoulders while whispering that everything will be alright. Before I can explain to him that my brother is still not here, the Great Hall’s doors slam open and Professor McGonagall leads the first years down towards the sorting hat.

Once the sorting hat sorts everybody and Dumbledore give his normal speech, the food finally appears on the tables. Even though I’m not really hungry, I start to put at least some fruit on my plate. Draco stays silent, but I notice that he keeps glancing at my plate with worry. As I continue to play around with my food, my eyes keep glancing up towards the doors. Finally, during one of the countless times that I’m looking up, I notice that Professor Snape immediately stands up and quickly walks out of the Great Hall with a look of anger on his face. Well, I’m going to assume that my brother and his friend have just arrived. A sigh of relief escapes me, and I finally start to enjoy my dinner.


	7. Attention Seeker

**NOTE: Bold = Anastasia's written response** _Slanted = Anastasia's mind-link response_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my original characters. This is made for my entertainment and for the entertainment of the fan fiction community!** _

I finally find out what happened to my brother the next morning. This morning, Draco and I walk into the Great Hall for breakfast when I notice the messy mop of black hair that is sitting with the rest of the lions. Before even glancing back at Draco, I rush over to my brother and hug him.

“I see you are back, P-Harry,” Draco says from behind me. I smile when I realize that he is trying to become friends with my big brother. When Harry pulls away from the hug, he looks surprised at my honoree big brother for actually calling him by his first name. Before my big brother can say anything to Draco, I hear an intake of breath and look over to see the Weasel is about to say something, but thankfully Hermione smacks him in the back of the head. He looks at her with a glare but decides to continue eating his breakfast.

“ _What happened to you and the Weasel, big brother?_ ” I ask him while completely ignoring the fact that I should be eating breakfast. He sighs but moves over so there is room for me to sit at the table. I look back to see if Draco wants to sit down as well, but instead of being behind me he is now being dragged back to the Slytherin table by Pansy. I’ll talk to him afterward, I guess. Oh! I also need to talk to Pansy and hopefully become friends with her.

“It’s a long story, Asia,” Harry says, and I briefly smile at the new nickname, “The short version of it is that when Ron and I tried to go through the barrier behind the rest of you, we ended up hitting a solid brick wall. In order to reach Hogwarts, we decided to take the flying car. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Hogwarts, we ended up crashing into the Whomping Willow and the car disappeared. Snape and Filch found us and we almost got expelled. Thankfully, Dumbledore and McGonagall came and didn’t expel us. I believe that’s it.” I sit there for a couple of seconds as I process his shortened story. That is a lot to take in, but honestly, I’m not surprised that my brother has found himself in his past experience. Things always happen to my brother.

“ _Wow, Harry! There is never a dull day with you,”_ I jokingly say to him, but my stomach growling loudly makes me blush before standing up. Giving my brother one last hug, I start making my way towards the snake table when a small body collides with me. Thankfully, neither of us fall, but I do take a few steps back.

Quickly looking down, I notice Hufflepuff colored robes and long brown hair before the person pulls away. Kitty smiles up at me while rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. Oh, no! I completely forgot to congratulate her on making it into Hufflepuff. I think it is official, now. I have at least one friend in every house, well, besides Ravenclaw.

“ **Congrats on being Hufflepuff! Are they treating you well in there? Have you made any new friends, yet?** ” I quickly ask her, and she laughs at my enthusiasm. Giving her a playful glare, and she instantly stops laughing with a pink tint appearing on her cheeks.

“They are all nice, but I haven’t made any friends other than you,” Kitty says with a sad look on her face. With a reassuring smile, I give her a hug while informing her that she should go eat breakfast before it disappears. Her eyes widen in terror before rushing off to her table. Laughing at her reaction, I decided to take my own advice and head over to the Slytherin table.

Smiling briefly at Draco and Pansy, I turn to the plate in front of me that is filled with pancakes and other delicious food. While I start to eat my breakfast, I try to come up with the right words to write to Pansy. After a couple of minutes, I start to write down my first sentence when all of the food disappears, and people start to head to their first classes. I guess I’m going to have to talk to Pansy at another time.

Grabbing my stuff, I look around until I spot Draco trying to get away from Pansy but, apparently, is failing big time. Once they leave through the door, I sigh before walking towards my first class without anyone to keep me company. Before I can get too sad, I feel two pairs of arms circle around my shoulders. Smiling, I look up at the two fourteen-year-old boys.

“You looked lonely-,” George starts to say to me.

“And we couldn’t have that, can we?” Fred finishes with smiles on both of their faces. Nodding my head quickly, they decide to escort me to the Greenhouse before going to their classes and I honestly really appreciate it. The ginger twins make me laugh throughout the walk, and they even told me about some pranks they are planning for later.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end and we finally reach the Greenhouse. I’m pretty sure they’re late for their classes but they seem to not mind or care. Smiling, I thank them before giving them hugs as I walk into the building.

Looking around, I notice that my brother is standing on one side of the table with Ron and Hermione while Draco is standing on the other side. Waving at my brother, I head over to an empty place when Big Brother Draco grabs my arm before dragging me to his spot. Laughing softly, I realize that he must have gotten away from Pansy and does not want her to be next to him. Dra gives me a glare but there is a smile on his lips which lets me know that he also finds his situation as amusing as I see it.

A friendly woman walks out from the back room and tries to get the classes attention. The key word in that sentence is try because no one even glanced towards the woman. Professor Sprout speaks even louder than the rest of us, which finally captures everyone’s attention.

“Good morning, Professor Sprout!” everybody says together while I simply just wave with a smile.

“Welcome to the Greenhouse, second years! Gather around, everyone!” the head of Hufflepuff tells us, and we walk towards the long table, so we can see her better. She seems to get more excited as she explains what we are going to do today, “We are going to be re-potting Mandrakes, today! Now, can anyone tell me the properties of the Mandrake root?”

My mind briefly flashes to a book that I read during the summer. Even though I can’t speak I decide to raise my hand anyway. Just in case, I start to write down my response while I wait to see who she calls on. I mean, she doesn’t have that many choices because the only people raising their hands are myself and Hermione. Surprisingly, Professor Sprout calls on me and I quickly finish my answer before passing it to Draco.

“She says, ‘ **Mandrake, or also known as Mandragora is most commonly used to return people or creatures that are in a petrified state to their original state. Unfortunately, Mandrakes are also quite dangerous because their cries are fatal to anyone that hears it.** ’” Draco finishes and gives me back my notepad. I look up and notice that the Professor is giving me a smile.

“Excellent explanation, Ms. Potter! Ten points to Slytherin!” she says, and I nod my head in thanks. While Sprout goes on to explain that because the Mandrakes are seedlings their cries are not fatal, I look over at Draco and he gives me a smile while giving me a thumbs up. Quickly glancing at my brother, he gives me a smile as well before focusing on the professor. As I start to tune back into the professor, I got the tail end of her explanation, “…Which is why I have given you earmuffs, for auditory protection. Can you all please put them on now? Quickly!”

Not wanting to dawdle when it comes to safety, I quickly grab a pair of earmuffs from in front of me and quickly place them on my ears. Pressing down on the flaps, I make sure that the earmuffs are completely covering my ears before turning to Draco. Fixing his earmuffs, I give him a smile before turning to look at everyone around the table to make sure they all have their earmuffs. Feeling confident that everyone has their earmuffs on correctly, I focus on the professor as she starts to explain what we have to do, today.

Unfortunately, during the demo, Neville turns a sickly pale before fainting on the other side of the table. The Mandrakes must really have frightened him or something. Sadly, some of the Slytherins start to chuckle at the fact that the poor boy fainted, and slight disappointment fills me because of my housemates. Looking at my honoree big brother, he is smiling slightly but for the most part, he just looks bored of the situation. Feeling somewhat proud that he is changing from the boy that laughed at other people’s misery last year, I give him a giant hug and he glances down at me with a smile.

“Well, just leave him there,” Professor Sprout says after learning that Neville only fainted. Clapping her gloved hands together, she turns to look at the rest of us and continues the class, “Alright! Grasp your Mandrake and pull it up.”

After she says that, I pull up the baby like plant and it instantly starts to cry. The earmuffs dampen the noise to the point that I don’t hear anything. Giving the plant a smile, I quickly put it into the pot in front of me while putting some soil into it. Huffing in satisfaction, I turn to see Draco about to put his finger a little bit too close to the Mandrake’s mouth. Grabbing his arm, I shake my head when he looks over before pointing to his pot. Honestly, if I wasn’t paying attention he could have just lost a finger. Rolling my eyes, I start to ponder about boy’s inability to think before doing something for the rest of the class period.

By lunchtime, Draco and I are sitting at the Slytherin table with bored looks on our faces. Even though I love learning about magic, classes are still boring every once and awhile. Dra and I start to talk about Potions because even though I have read the entire potions book, I can’t seem to grasp how to make them. My honoree big brother offers to help me because, surprisingly, Professor Snape is his godfather and has been teaching him potions since he was small.

As we continue to talk about potions, an owl screeching makes most of the students look up at the lone owl flying in. This is slightly abnormal because it isn’t mail day yet there is an owl heading towards the Gryffindor table. I catch a glimpse of a red envelope before the owl crashes in front of the red-headed Weasel. Most of the Slytherins laugh at the dumb owl, and I’ll admit that I slightly giggle but for the most part I’m wondering if the bird is alright. Thankfully, once the bird stands up and flies away I laugh a little bit more because no one got hurt.

“Look, everyone! Weasley’s got himself a Howler!” one of the Gryffindor boys shouts out to the rest of the table. Everyone falls silent as they hear that last word. Giving Draco a confused look, he smiles at me and starts to explain what a Howler is.

“A Howler is what people send when they are angry. It’s a letter that is charmed to sound as the sender and they will shout out the letter. For the most part, they are hilarious to watch but very embarrassing to receive,” Draco says, and I nod along with his explanation. When I turn back to look at the Weasel, I notice that he is opening the letter.

“Ronald Weasley!” the Howler shouts out with Molly’s voice. In surprise, Ron drops the red envelope onto the table in front of him. The Howler floats up and forms a paper mouth and tongue with the envelope. It continues to shout at the Weasel, “How dare you steal that car! I’m disgusted! Your father is now facing an inquiry at work and it is all your fault! If you so much as step another foot out of line, we will bring you straight home!” The letter seems to have finished yelling at him before it turns to Ginny. Surprisingly, the letter doesn’t yell at her but actually congratulates her for making it into Gryffindor. Finally, it turns back to Ron and sticks out its tongue before shredding itself up into tiny pieces. The dining hall stays silent for a few more minutes before returning back to the loud conundrum that children usually make.

As I turn back to eating my lunch, I notice that Pansy isn’t seating too far away from me. Remembering my earlier mission, I go back to the page that has my explanation for Pansy on it. Taking a deep breath, I stand up from my seat before slowly walking over to the black-haired girl. As she notices my approach, she gives me a glare while turning back to a girl that she is sitting next to. Tapping Pansy on her shoulder, I wait for a few minutes before I tap her on her shoulder again. She makes a loud sigh before turning to me.

“What do you want?” she says with venom in her voice. Flinching slightly, I give her a friendly smile before handing her the paper. Taking a minute to read the paper, she crumbles up the explanation before tossing it at me. My smiles falls a couple of inches as she leans closer to me.

“Do you think that I’ll ever be friends with you? You are nothing but a mute orphan who shouldn’t have been placed in Slytherin. You may have Draco wrapped around your finger, but you are just an attention seeker that should just go away. Nobody will miss you,” she finishes, and I flinch back as each word hits my eardrums. My smile completely disappears and tears well up inside my eyes.

Nodding, I slowly head out of the hall before running into the abandoned girl bathroom. Launching myself into the nearest stall, I lock the door before I start to cry my heart out. I don’t understand why she is so mean. Even though I explained to her that Draco and I are basically siblings, she is still so hateful. Why would she say all of those horrible things to me? It’s not like I wanted to be mute or have my parents die. If I could, I would do anything to have my parents alive and well. Nobody ever wants to live their lives not knowing anything about their parents and living with relatives that hate everything about you. And sure, I may not act like a normal Slytherin, but I can still be cunning when I need to be. Just because I am more compassionate than most of the people in Slytherin doesn’t mean I’m a bad person either.

Before I can think further, I hear the bathroom door open, which is then followed by a female voice calling my name. Sniffling, I listen to the person and a couple more times before I realize that it is Hermione. Knocking twice on the stall door, I open the wooden door while keeping my head down.

“Are you alright, Tasia? People are heading off to their next classes now,” the bookworm asks me as she walks closer. Silently nodding my head, I start to walk by her before she grabs my arm. Briefly forgetting about the fact that I’m still crying, I look up at her before I can stop myself. Hermione gasps as she looks at my face and rushes me towards the sinks to clean my face.

“What happened, Tasia? Why are you crying?” she worriedly asks me while she washes my face with water. Shrugging, I try to keep my problems to myself because I don’t want to seem like an attention seeker.

“Does it have something to do with Pansy?” Hermione asks me, and I give her a nod before hearing a bell ring, which is signaling that classes are about to start. My friend finishes cleaning my face before giving me a look that says that we will be having this conversation later. Sighing, I follow after my friend as we head to our very first Defense Against the Dark Arts class with our new professor, Mr. Goldilocks. I don’t know if I should be excited or not.


	8. Things Do Get Better

**NOTE: Bold = Anastasia's written response** _Slanted = Anastasia's mind-link response_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my original characters. This is made for my entertainment and for the entertainment of the fan fiction community!** _

Thankfully, Hermione and I made it to class before the final bell rang. Walking into the classroom, I quickly notice that there are only two seats left in the very front. Hermione drags me to the desk before pushing me into one of the seats. Slightly chuckling at her behavior, I straighten myself while grabbing my supplies out of my satchel. Right as I finish putting my books onto the desk, I hear the door to Goldilocks office open and I quickly look up.

Mr. Lockhart steps out of his office, and a blush instantly appears on my face. Looking around, I quickly notice that every girl has either a dreamy look or a blush, like me. Quickly, I turn back to the teacher as I hear him starting to speak. Unfortunately, I can’t hear anything coming out of his mouth as I continue to just admire him. This man is basically a hero! He has multiple books of his heroism and it is nearly impossible to not form a crush on such a hero!

Snapping out of my day dream, I notice that Goldilocks is handing out what looks like a test and I immediately start to worry. Why is he giving us a test on the first day of class? Is it a test to see what we remember from last year? Or is it on his books? As I continue to squirm in my seat, Hermione finally hands me the test and a sigh of relief escapes me as I read over the paper. Confusion slightly fills me as I read over the questions, which are all about him. None of these questions have anything to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts, but he must have a reason for this test. Maybe, he is using this test to see if any of the students have read the books that were on the list. Nodding, I quickly answer all of the questions that I remember from the books, and I stand up before handing him my test. Sitting back down, I start to relive my terrible morning. I don’t mean to be an attention seeker! Sure, I always got to my friends when I’m having problems without trying to solve them on my own, but that doesn’t mean I’m an attention seeker. It just simply means that I crave comfort and want someone to, lack of better words, be the leader. Honestly, I think it is because Harry and I had to take care of the Dursleys without ever being given a single hug.

Hermione moving from her seat brings me out of my sorrow, and I watch as she hands her test to the teacher before sitting next to me again. She gives me a look that let’s me know that she hasn’t forgotten about our earlier incident. Sighing, I shake my head and try to look away from her, but she grabs my arm, which makes me look at her in surprise. My friend grabs a quill and paper before shoving them at me. Tears starts to fill my eyes while I shake my head again. I DON’T WANT TO BE AN ATTENTION SEEKER!!!

Thank Salazar for Mr. Lockhart, because he starts to speak to the class which makes Hermione turn her attention to him. Sighing, I turn to listen to him as he chastises the class about their lack of correct answers. I laugh slightly as he talks about how only two of us knew that his favorite color is Lilac. Sighing, he congratulates me and Hermione for knowing every single question on the test. Smiling bashfully, I turn my face towards the desk, so he doesn’t see my blush.

He walks over to his desk that has a large covered object on top of it. Goldilocks takes out his wand before looking at us with the most serious look that he can give.

“Now, I must warn you that my job is to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizard kind,” he says and taps the object that is shaped like an owl’s cage with his wand. The object starts to shake and the sound of something hitting metal becomes prominent. Goldilocks takes no notice of the noise and continues his speech. “You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Just know that no harm will befall you whilst I am here.” He grabs the top of the cover and gives us one finally warning, “I must ask that you don’t scream, because it might provoke them.”

The teacher throws the cover off the cage, and I instantly gasp as I recognize the creatures that are inside the cage. Blue creatures that are eight inches long are banging on the bars, and my mind goes back to a creatures book that I have read. They are Cornish Pixies! I don’t think that having them in a school is a good idea even if they are in a cage. Cornish Pixies are known for being little pranksters that love to hang people up by their ears.

“Cornish Pixies?” a Gryffindor asks Goldilocks and his response is to mention that they are freshly caught. Yeah, I’m starting to become afraid for my life, but at the same time I trust that Mr. Lockhart can protect us from danger. For some reason that went over my head, half of the class starts to laugh, and I just scrunch my face up in confusion. Why are they laughing at the fact that it is Cornish Pixies? Turning around, I look at my brother who is sitting behind me and he notices my confusion as he laughs. He motions that he will tell me later and I nod my head before turning around.

Unfortunately, as soon as I turn around, I catch a glimpse of Lockhart letting the Cornish Pixies out of their cage while basically telling us to put the pixies back in the cage ourselves. I quickly jump out of my seat and quickly hide underneath the desk. I do not want to get hung up in the air by my ears. From my hiding place, I watch as the pixies destroy the classroom and other students are running around or trying to hide under their desks like me. A boy’s yelling makes me look over to see the Cornish Pixies grabbing a Gryffindor by his ears and lifting him up into the air. My breath catches in my throat as I watch them hang the Gryffindor on the chandelier by the back of his robes. I think his name is Neville, but I’ve never spoken to him personally. Quickly, I turn to Goldilocks because he is the teacher and a hero! He should know that now would be a good time to put the Cornish Pixies back into their cage.

“Peskipiksi Pesternomi!” Mr. Lockhart says with a smile at the end, but it quickly disappears as one of the pixies takes his wand from his hand. A look of confusion appears on my face as I try to remember that spell, and from my nearly perfect memories, I can honestly say that I’ve never read anything that had that spell in it. A loud snap comes from above me and I glance around the desk to see the large skeleton of a giant bird falling down towards me with pixies on it. Gasping, I quickly get back underneath the desk, and I hear a loud bang as the skeleton lands on my desk before dropping onto the ground. Looking around the chaos, I see Big Brother Draco running out of the room with Crabbe and Goyle following him. Big Brother is helping Hermione get a pixie out of her hair and Ron is hiding underneath a desk as well. Hearing movement behind me, I watch as Goldilocks runs up the stairs to his office before looking down at us.

“I’ll ask you all to just nip the rest of them back into their cage,” with those words, he rushes back into his office with the door shutting behind him. Big Brother and I look at each other with disbelief before I start to think about all of the spells that I read and ones that I learned as well. One spell immediately comes to mind and I hurry out from underneath the desk. With my wand raised up towards the pixies, I yell the word “Immobulus” inside my head and watch as blue light escapes my wand. The light surrounds all of the Cornish Pixies and makes them freeze in the air. The classroom goes instantly silent as the pixies just float around in the air without moving. A sigh of relief escapes me, but a wave of drowsiness takes ahold of me. Shaking my head, I look up at Neville before using the spell levitation spell to get him back onto the ground.

“I don’t know why this stuff always happens to me, but thank you Anastasia for getting me down,” the boy, Neville, says to me and I nod my head before grabbing my stuff that is scattered around the room. I would have been politer if it isn’t for the fact that I am immensely tired from using the freezing charm and the levitation charm. After a minute of gathering my things, I put them back in my satchel before hurrying out of the classroom.

There are two reasons why I am hurrying back to my dorms even though there are more classes. The main one is that I feel ready to collapse into a heap on the ground, but the other reason is also pretty important. This reason being that I simply don’t want to end up explaining about what happened to the bathroom to Hermione. I just know that even after this event, she is still going to remember that incident. I’m not an attention seeker! Back to the Cornish Pixies event, I wonder why Mr. Lockhart didn’t put the pixies back into the cage and just ran back into his office. Maybe, his teaching technique is to have us do it ourselves. Yeah, that has to be it because he is a man that has helped so many people and wouldn’t just let us kids get into reckless danger. Goldilocks was probably going to come out if it got too dangerous.

With those thoughts cemented into my mind, I slowly continue my way down the dungeons and stumble into the walls every once and awhile. As I make my through the dungeons, I just past the door that leads to the potions classroom when the bell rings. A large group of sixth years quickly exit the classroom and push me out of the way. Sadly, I land on the cold hard ground while more students rush past me and some of them hit me with their legs. Thankfully, no one steps on me and it only lasts five minutes before everyone is finally gone. A groan escapes my lips as I try to lift myself up from the ground. My strength gives out halfway and I fall back to the ground with my face hitting it first this time.

Heavy, yet smooth, footsteps make their way towards me from somewhere in the dungeons, but I can’t tell where they are coming from because I am more focused on not falling asleep. After what feels like a million years, the footsteps stop right in front of me and deep voice comes next.

“What are you doing, silly girl? Get off the ground,” Professor Snape drawls, and I slowly try to get off the ground again. The best I can do by myself is get myself to a sitting position and slowly look up to meet the professor’s face. His eyes widen briefly before he quickly grabs my arms and quickly drags me into the potions classroom.

“ _Professor? What’s wrong?_ ” I ask him, but he doesn’t say anything instead he pushes me into his office. Professor Snape pushes me into a chair while grabbing a cloth and shoving it into my hands. As I sit in the chair, I feel warm liquid slowly trailing down the lower half of my face. Touching it, I groan when I recognize it as blood. This is why the professor is rushing around the place: I got a bloody nose from hitting my face against the ground. Shaking my head, I put the cloth against my nose and lean my head back slightly.

“Here, silly girl, drink this,” he says while passing me a potion that will painfully get rid of my pain and bloody nose. Without a second thought, I swallow the potion and have to stop myself from gagging it back up.

“Do you want to explain why you were on the ground, Ms. Potter?” he asks me with an eyebrow raised. Nodding my head, I explain about what happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts to what just happened with the hallway. Shaking his head, he moves over to sit at his desk while grumbling to himself about how ‘of course, this would happen to me’. Smiling, I continue to hold the cloth to my nose and lean back against the chair. Another wave of drowsiness comes over me, and I yawn as I wait for the potion to take effect.

“Now, why did you leave lunch so quickly?” the dreaded question comes up, and I quickly shake my head no. I can not tell him or anyone about my problems. A sigh of annoyance fills the room before he talks with slight anger in his voice, “Usually, I wouldn’t care about students leaving early, but you are godson’s best friend and you look like you were close to tears. Explain why you left early, silly girl, before I give you detention.”

Tears stream down my face while my hand finally comes down from my nose with the cloth. I weigh the pros and cons of telling him before I hear him becoming more annoyed. Right before he gives me detention, I whisper “ _Do you think I am an attention seeker? Should I have been placed in another house? Am I just a mute orphan that no one will miss?_ ” Professor Snape’s hand slamming against his desk makes me flinch as curl up into my chair. Honestly, I don’t want to know his answers, but at the same time I don’t want to get detention.

“Ms. Potter, why do you ask such ridiculous questions?” his words make me look up at him, I notice that he has an intense look in his eyes. I cock my head to the side before he sighs for what seems like the hundredth time today. “If you were not meant to be in Slytherin then the Sorting Hat would not have put you here. Yes, you run to people a lot more then you try to fix problems yourself, but you don’t intentionally seek out dangerous situations. You don’t try to act as the victim either, you know when you do something wrong and you change. From these observations, I can say with certainty that you are not an ‘attention seeker’. Finally, you have many people that would miss you if anything happened to you. Like my godson and those Devil Twins. Your own brother would miss you terribly, so get those silly thoughts out of your head.”

The tears that are falling down my face change from sad ones to happy ones. A small smile appears on my face as I take in his knowledgeable words. Nodding my head again, I quickly hurry over to him and give him another hug like I did when I found out about my illness. Just like the other time, his body becomes stiff like a board but at this point I don’t care. Hugging another person makes my emotions calm down and I gradually stop crying, but now my other problem has returned with more force. I almost faint in Professor Snape’s arms, but I have enough energy to keep myself up for a few minutes.

“ _Professor, I’m about to collapse in exhaustion. Can you help me back to the dormitories or a place that I can rest, please?_ ” I ask the teacher, I hear him take a deep breath before he stands up. Walking me over to a couch in his office, he informs me that I can rest there until dinner. Nodding my head, I watch as he leaves his office to start the next potions class in a few minutes. With a smile, I slowly fall asleep with my mind and heart at ease.


	9. Mudblood

**NOTE: Bold = Anastasia's Written Response** _Slanted = Anastasia's Mind-Link Response_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my original characters. This is made for my entertainment and for the entertainment of the fan fiction community!** _

The next time I wake up is when Professor Snape shakes me awake for dinner. Yawning while nodding my head, I slowly get up before hurrying out the door behind Professor Snape. We have minimal conversations on the way to the Grand Hall, but I don’t think either of us minded. As we get closer to the hall, the loud noises that are being created by the other students and teachers progressively becomes worse. I am not awake enough to deal with loud people right now. The professor must have heard my internal complaining, because I see him smirk for a few seconds before opening the doors.

Sighing, I start to walk to the Slytherin table when I notice my brother motioning me over. With confusion clearly evident on my face, I walk over to them before asking my brother what’s wrong. He explains that during Quidditch training today, the Slytherin Quidditch team stole their time on the Quidditch pitch. I pat him on the back because I know how much Harry loves this sport.

“Did you know that Draco is the new Slytherin seeker?” the Weasel asks me, and I shake my head while I go into complete shock. Why hasn’t Dra said anything about being part of the Quidditch team? Before I can continue my inner breakdown, my brother also explains about the main problem about the whole ordeal, because it gets even worse.

The Slytherin captain called Hermione a MudBlood. Confused, I look at Hermione for an explanation and she explains that a ‘MudBlood’ means dirty blood. Usually, a MudBlood is a muggleborn, because in the eyes of purebloods and half-bloods, muggleborns have dirty blood. My hands clench into tight fists as I continue to listen to her explanation. I hold back my urge to go to Flint and punch him in the face. I may be nice and innocent to others, but once you hurt my family and friends, I will protect them and get revenge, if need be. If I go and punch Flint in the face, then most likely I will get detention or worse. So, unfortunately, that means that a physical confrontation is not on the table. Sighing, I go over to Hermione and give her a giant hug, which she does not hesitate to recuperate. Pulling away from the hug, I grab my notepad and decided to write down my feelings on this entire matter.

“ **I can’t believe he said that to you, Hermione! You are a bright and talented witch! Especially for being a Muggleborn! The only reason anyone would say such a disgusting word is because they are jealous that they can’t do half the things that you can do, especially a first year. Don’t ever forget that, Hermione! Or so help me I’ll throttle you until you know that I’m right like always,** ” I tell her with a smirk on my face. She laughs while agreeing that she won’t forget it. Laughing, I tell them that I’m going to eat and start to walk to the Slytherin table.

As I am heading over, I look over and notice Kitty sitting by herself at the Hufflepuff table. Feeling bad that my friend is by herself, I redirect myself over to the Hufflepuff table and place my hand on her shoulder. I feel her flinch from underneath my hand before quickly looking up to find that it’s just me. Kitty relaxes before giving me a smile that shows she is still slightly hesitant around me.

Giving her a hand motion to follow me, I wait for her to get up before walking us to the Slytherin table. Smiling at Draco, I sit Kitty between me and my honoree big brother because I’m pretty sure the other Slytherins do not appreciate what I just did. Feeling a pair of eyes on me, I look down the table to see Flint giving me a disapproving look, but I just give my best glare before turning back to my friends. Kitty looks very uncomfortable being at the Slytherin table, but I simply give her a reassuring smile before promptly filling my plate with food that I like. As I have a conversation with both of my friends, I make sure that Kitty and Draco are eating enough food because they need to stay healthy.

Sadly, dinner comes to an end, and I have to say goodbye to my friend. Kitty gives me a hug before rushing off with the rest of the Hufflepuffs. Right as I am about to follow Draco down to the dungeons, I see a pair of identical red heads and I instantly remember what Flint called my friend. A devious smirk appears on my face while I motion for Draco to go on without me. Rushing over, I tackle one of the twins, but I didn’t have enough strength to take him to the ground. Ironically, instead of Fred falling to the ground like I imagined, I am the one that has fallen to the ground after running full force into him. I hear the twins laugh at my expense before helping me off the ground.

“Hello, Anastasia!” the twins say together, and I give them a smile before my smirk from earlier comes back. Fred and George quickly notice my sneaky behavior before identical shifty smiles appear on their faces.

“Well, look at what we have here, George. I think our little innocent friend might be taking a page or two out of our book. What do you think, Gred?” the older twin asks his brother, and I am briefly confused at the new name, but I quickly ignore it thinking that it must be a nickname between them.

“I agree with you, Forge. It makes me wonder what she has in mind if she has come to us. I’m kind of worried for the person that has made her this upset,” George replies while they look at me with badly hidden excitement. Smiling, I write down about what happened to Hermione and how I want them to prank Flint. I give the page to George, but the twins didn’t even fully read it before talking to me.

“Oh, yeah! We were there when it happened. Don’t you remember that we are the beaters for the team?” Fred and George look at me with their eyebrows raised. I give them a sheepish smile with a blush appearing on my face. Slowly, I shake my head while looking down at the ground. They chuckle while putting their arms around my shoulders and we head out of the Great Hall.

“Anyway, Forge and I will gladly pull a prank on Flint for calling Hermione such an awful name. You leave the pranking to us, but we do need your help,” George tells me, and I quickly nod my head while giving him a questioning look. He smiles while they continue to guide me down to what I realize is the dungeons, “We need a way into the Slytherin dorms. This is where you will come in because we need you to allow us into the dorms. Unfortunately, we won’t do the prank tonight because everyone will be expecting that, but we will send you an owl when we have decided to do the prank.”

I nod my head, and we arrive at the entrance of the Slytherin commons. Giving them one last smile, I hug them before showing the password to the painting which lets me into the commons. The first thing that is waiting for me inside the commons is Dra sitting on the coach with his homework. Laughing quietly, I shake my head slightly while plopping down next to him. I can tell that he is startled from his work, because he jumps a couple of inches before looking over at me. Giving him a smirk, I watch as he rolls his eyes before lightly punching me in the arm. My mind briefly flashes to what the Weasel told me earlier, and I immediately sober up.

“ **Why didn’t you tell me that you are the new Slytherin seeker? In fact, when did you try out for the position?** ” I ask him, and I hear a very loud gulp as Draco reads the sentences. After reading it, he looks up with an uneasy half smile while he tries to explain.

“W-Well, you see,” he starts to say before sighing with his shoulders sagging, “I kind of wanted to surprise you when Quidditch actually started. I wasn’t going to tell you until you saw me on the team on the day of the match. I’m sorry about not telling you, and, please, don’t be upset with me. I asked Flint if I could try out during one of my class periods and after some convincing he finally allowed it.”

My goldish eyes blink and blink again before finally pulling him into a hug. Yes, I am upset that he didn’t tell me that he got onto the team, but I also understand that he was trying to surprise me. I don’t think it would have been a good surprise, though, if I didn’t hear about it until the day of the first Slytherin match. I mean, I am really happy for him, but I am now afraid to death for his safety as well as my big brother’s. Quidditch isn’t a sport that can be taken lightly. With this in mind, I tell him exactly how I feel, but I also explain to him that I am not going to hold him back from playing. At the end, all I ask is that he stays as safe as he possibly can.

“Thank you, Ana for not being upset with me!” Dra says while hugging me before pulling away as quickly as he started. A look of seriousness appears on his face, “I’ll try to be safe, Ana, but I can’t make any promises. If I get hurt, you will come visit me in the hospital wing, right?”

“ **Of course! You are my best friend and my honoree big brother!** ” I tell him with a smile on my face. He smiles as well before hugging me again, but this time I have the opportunity to actually hug back. After a couple of minutes, we pull away from each other and turn our attention back onto the dreaded topic of homework.

A couple of days later, all thoughts about the prank on Flint have almost completely left my mind. The key word is almost because the twins finally decided to make their move tonight. The school owl lands a letter onto my plate during breakfast. Confusion envelopes my features as I open the letter which only has one word on it: tonight. Trying to not act suspicious, I just nod my head while putting the letter back into the envelope. Putting it until my robes, I can’t help the smile that appears on my face slightly as I start talking to Draco, while thinking about Flint’s upcoming fate.

That night, it takes until almost midnight before everyone is finally asleep. Cautiously, I pull the curtains around my bed open and slowly tip toe my way across the girls room to the door. The real problem is opening the door without it squeaking everyone awake. Thankfully, Lady magic was on my side tonight, the door stays absolutely silent as I slowly open it.

I pull the Slytherin common room door open and the twins are outside whispering to each other while holding stuff for the prank. Unfortunately, I still don’t know what the prank will be because the twins wanted me to find out the same time as everyone else. Softly knocking on the portal draws their attention towards me. They both give me a sly smile while hurrying into the Slytherin house. Right as they enter my commons, I quickly realize that they’ve never been here before because they look around the room with fascination on their faces. Within a few seconds, their prankster faces come back, and they quickly head up the stairs to the boys’ dormitories. I decided that I should probably wait for them to come back so I sit down on the couch.

I don’t know if it was because the boys were taking too long, or it was because it was midnight, but I ended up falling asleep on the couch. At least, I was sleeping until someone started to shake me awake. Mumbling incoherently, I open my eyes to see that Draco is the one shaking me awake and there is light seeping in from the window that looks into the lake. Draco is already dressed with his hair gelled back, and I can see concern in his eyes.

“Why are you sleeping on the couch, Ana?” he asks me, and I just shrug my shoulders while popping my back. Giving him a sluggish hug, I head up towards the girls’ dormitories in order to get ready for the day.

Honestly, not even three minutes into breakfast before everyone hears Flint’s reaction to the prank. A loud shout fills the Great Hall as the doors banged open with someone that had Flint’s features but looked completely different from the Slytherin captain. Instead this person is as tall as a toddler and looks like a mix between a Weasley and, naturally, Flint. I get why the twins made him into a toddler. From my understanding of magic, children with magic can’t really do any magic and if they somehow do magic it’s usually accidental.

“Who did this to me?!” the high pitch voice shouts and the room is silent until everyone, except the teachers, bursts out laughing. I have to cover my face with my hands in order to keep my laughing silent, which I technically don’t need to do, but I decided to do it anyway. The only reason why I don’t want to laugh is the fact that I would be technically laughing at a toddler. I don’t know why but Flint catches my eye and I can see his small eyes narrow at me before rushing towards me. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was a little kid right now, I would be very scared about him being angry.

He quickly reaches me and yanks on my sleeve, but it doesn’t do much. Flint realizes that he doesn’t have the strength to get me out of my seat and instead of doing the smart thing which is to stop, he decides to pull hardly until he finally falls backs. He lands on his butt and his face flushes in shame. I can hear the other people in Slytherin laughing even harder, but I decided to be nice and give him a hand up. The Slytherin captain sees my hand raised as an offer of help and he quickly slaps it away. Flint pushes himself off the floor before putting his hands on his hips.

“I know you did this to me, and you better turn me back or else,” he very cutely growls, and I hold my hands up in innocence while shaking my head no. Flint looks at me with a look that says that he knows that I am lying. “I know you did this to me!” He shrieks again, and I sigh before writing down one sentence. The toddler Flint reads the sentence before storming off in anger.

I turn around to look at my friend and see the look of confusion on his face. Setting my notepad in between us, I just shrug my shoulders while going back to my breakfast. As I start to eat my not so healthy food, I notice that out of the corner of my eye that Draco leans closer to me in order to read the one sentence that made Flint leave in anger.

**“Never call someone a ‘MudBlood’ again.”**


	10. Voices

**NOTE: Bold = Anastasia's written response** _Slanted = Anastasia's mind-link response_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than my original characters. This is made for my entertainment and for the entertainment of the fan fiction community!** _

Nobody sees Flint for the rest of the day. In fact, nobody sees little Flint ever again because almost a week later the prank that the twins put on him finally wears off. Almost everyone completely forgot about Flint and his situation, but when he strolled into the Great Hall as his regular old self the prank came back to everyone. Sadly, since he turned back into a teenager, he has tried to make my life miserable and he has succeeded to an extent.

For a while he and Pansy partnered up and were pulling horrible pranks on me. The pranks started off simple like turning off my alarm spell or tripping me. As the days progressed, the two started to do horrible things like hiding my journal so I couldn’t write things down. There was this one prank that got so bad that I started crying and hyperventilating. I went to use the restroom before Potions, and I told Draco to go on ahead. I didn’t want him to be late as well if I was taking too long. At first Draco refused, but after me begging him a few times he finally left me alone. I tried to be as quick as possible because Professor Snape is someone that will not accept any excuses for being late. With five minutes left before class started, I finished my business and was heading out of the restroom when stopped by the two. Honestly, I don’t remember how it happened but the next thing I could remember was being stuck upside down inside a stall and no way of getting help. I couldn’t move and without the ability to speak I was left there…helpless. I don’t know how long I stayed like that, but the stall walls started to feel like they were closing in. There wasn’t as much room and air. Why isn’t there more air? My body started to fight against the stasis charm more. Salty tears burn my eyes making me unable to see around me which made my heartbeat even faster. I just needed air. That’s the part of the memory that stands out the most. Just that overwhelming need and feeling like you are going to die. Apparently, I fainted after that from hyperventilating and was later found by a Ravenclaw girl using the restroom. I don’t know how long I was there for.

After I recovered enough to inform my head of house what happened, Pansy and Flint got detention for a month. When I heard that they only got detention for a month, I became upset. I mean why wouldn’t I be!? These two left me suspended in midair with no way of getting help. I developed a fear of small places because of them, and I thought I was going to die, and they only got a month of detention. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one that saw the problem there because all of my friends especially Draco and big brother voiced their displeasure about the outcome. I think even Professor Snape was upset but he didn’t say anything nor did really even show that he was. But when I looked at him for a brief moment a flash of some kind of emotion flashed in his eyes before he covered it up again. I don’t know what that emotion was but I’m hopeful and say it was anger. Unfortunately, Professor Dumbledore informed us that no one was physically hurt, and no one was killed. He can’t do anything more over a harmless prank. A little part of my respect for this man died when he said that. “Just a harmless prank.” That’s what he called it. He called bullying a harmless prank. I didn’t say anything else. My friends and brother tried talking to me, but I didn’t write anything down. I didn’t do anything until a few days later when I was released from the medical wing. That day Kitty came to see me with Draco, and she started to talk about her experiences so far. Her enthusiasm about making her first real Hufflepuff friend made me smile. I felt big brother Draco grab my hand to keep me from tripping on an uneven stone and at that moment I knew. My friends are there for me and they will keep me safe. Ever since that day, Flint and Pansy haven’t come near me but that’s mostly because I haven’t left anyone’s side. It was rare for me to be by myself and if I wasn’t with any of my friends or brother I was with Professor Snape. He probably doesn’t appreciate having to deal with me, but he hasn’t said anything yet, so I just keep coming back to his classroom and studying/doing my homework.

Focusing back on the present, it’s been a month since that horrible incident. I am currently eating dinner in the Great Hall when Hermione and Ron stop in front of me. I wave at them while I continue with what I’m doing. If they have something to say, they can say it while I enjoy the delicious tastes that I’m slowly getting used to.

“Do you know where your brother is?” Hermione asks me, and I stop eating while I trying to remember anything. Something flashes briefly in my mind and I quickly write down where he might be.

“ **He had detention today with Professor Lockhart. Big Brother might still be there. I’ll come with you,** ” I inform them while I turn to Draco, who is watching this exchange with a form of jealousy on his face. Quickly, I write to him that I’ll meet him in the commons after I find my brother. Big brother Draco looks jealous for some reason, but he nods before turning back to his food. Feeling guilty, I give him a big hug, and I don’t let go until he finally hugs me back. Giving him a goofy smile, I follow the Weasel and Hermione out of the Great Hall towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

As we are walking through the cold hallways, my stomach briefly flips at the thought of seeing him again. Ugh! If this keeps happening, I won’t be able to even sit in that class anymore. I really need to control this crush before it gets out of hand like these other females. I swear, when he walks down the hall every female stops and makes googly eyes at him. I definitely don’t want to act like the rest of them.

Right as we turn the corner, my brother suddenly collides into me but, thankfully, neither of us fall onto the hard floor. I giggle slightly at the amount of hurrying he is doing but my giggling stops short when I notice how serious he is. Something must have happened to make big brother this stern. Taking a step forward, I put my hand on his arm while asking him what’s wrong.

“Did you hear the voice?” he asks quickly while looking around the hall. I look at the other two before shaking my head no. Hermione asks him what voice, but he doesn’t really answer her. “I first heard the voice in Lockhart’s office, but…it’s moving. I think it’s going to kill.” Right after he says that he takes off running with us having to go after him even though we have no idea what he is talking about.

We follow him through a few more halls until he finally slows down long enough for us to catch up to him. No one says anything as we watch big brother look around the hallway before walking towards a window. By this point, I’m standing right beside Harry when he throws his arm in front of me. Stopping, I turn to look down at what he is looking at and a chill instantly crawls up my spine. There are a ton of small spiders walking in a line up into an opening in the window before leaving the building. Taking this opportunity of the spiders being distracted, I walk onto the other side of my brother in order to get as far away from the spiders as possible.

“That’s strange. I’ve never seen spiders act like that,” my brother says while we continue to stare at the creepy eight-legged creatures. I hate spiders. I’m afraid of spiders to the point that some people call me arachnophobic and when I say some people, I mean I call myself that. It seems that the Weasel agrees with me because he informs all of us that he doesn’t like spiders as well.

As they continue to stare at the spiders, I turn my gaze away from the creepy crawlies and continue to look around the hallway. No one else is here but us and that’s to be expected because it is dinner time. I am surprised though that we haven’t even seen Filch. I guess, even Filch needs a break from walking around the castle. Turning my gaze to the wall opposite from us, my heart suddenly stops in fright. My mind and heart start to race at what I’m seeing. Feeling the adrenaline filling my veins, I start smacking my brother’s arm repeatedly until he finally pays attention to me.

“What is it, Ana?” I hear him ask me, but I can’t turn away from the sight in front of me. It’s like when there’s a car accident and people who drive by can’t stop looking at the scene. I never understood why we humans just can’t look away from morbid things. Unfortunately, for me I am caught in that kind of situation right now as I stare at the body of Mrs. Norris.

Remembering that there are others with me, I point at the cat that is currently hanging upside down by her tail. Next to the cat are words written on the wall in what I really hope isn’t blood. In the red ink, the words say, “enemies of the heir beware” and my mind flashes to a tale that I overheard the other Slytherins talking about. I think the story was about something called The Chamber of Secrets. Mentally, I add researching more about that story onto my list of things that I need to do.

I hear a gasp from Hermione as she grabs my arm and we stand closer together. A whimper comes from the Weasel while Harry slowly makes his way closer to the cat. At first glance Mrs. Norris appears to be dead but as my friend and I walk closer to my brother I realize that she looks wrong. Gently, I tug away from Hermione as I inspect the body closely. Why does this look familiar? She is breathing but she isn’t moving from her original position. My eyes widen at the realization that the cat is showing signs of petrification. How can she be petrified? This appears to be something else that I’m going to have to research more on.

Footsteps. Oh, no! What sounds like thousands of footsteps are bouncing off the stone walls and floors. My heart starts to pick speed up and my breathes come out shorter. Am I even breathing? Oh, Salazar! Everyone is going to think that we did this! We are going to get expelled! Harry and I will be forced to go back to the Dursley, and they will lock us in that small room. We will never see the sun again, and we won’t have any friends. People are going to think that we died and…and…and…why is this happening? The almost calm like thought ends my panic tirade which makes me pause momentarily. Where did that thought come from? It’s almost like someone else’s thought and not mine. Is that possible? Oh, Godric! I’m even more freaky than normal! All of my friends are going to think I’m crazy!

Suddenly, right as my thoughts start to spiral into a darker place the entire student body enters both ends of the hallway. Dinner must have ended. Within minutes, we are surrounded by students, and I instantly want to tear up but there is still hope that we can explain ourselves. Well…hopefully the other kids will allow us to explain ourselves. I hear gasps as everyone sees Mrs. Norris and the words on the wall. Looking around, I watch as the scared looks on people’s faces take light but there are a few adults in the crowd like Madam Pomfrey that just look shocked with some fear inside that shock. As I look around the crowd, I notice that my friends are in the very front of the crowd. Draco is standing with Crab and Goyle, and right next to the Slytherins is the Weasley twins with Kitty close by. The urge to go to my friends is pretty high at the moment but it’s like my mind and body are disconnected. No matter how much I would like to go over there, I’m stuck standing next to my brother and Hermione with the Weasel next to her. The whispering in the crowd erupts after the gasps and the constant talking is making my heartbeat faster. Why can’t I hear anything else besides the pounding of my heart? I think my breathing is even faster. How am I still standing? Can this just be a nightmare?

“What is going on here?” the sudden voice of Filch makes everything stop. Before everything was so loud and uncontrollable but now everything is silent. Everyone is still whispering but now I can hear external noises. My breathing is still too quick to be considered normal and my heart is still beating faster but there is an odd calmness that just takes over me. It’s almost like that one time when Aunt Petunia dumped cold water on big brother and I because we were dirty from working in the garden.

“Mrs. Norris?” Filch asks with a quiet broken voice when he finally notices her. I feel sorry for him because I can only imagine how horrible it must feel to find your pet not okay. He turns his focus on my brother because he is the closest to the cat. The look on his face immediately draws my fight or flight instincts to the forefront, and I want to run as fast as possible away from the danger that he is going to cause. Filch has a look worse than Uncle Vernon’s. I actually think he may murder my brother. A low whimper makes its way out of my throat, but I don’t think anyone noticed because everyone is focusing on the unhinged caretaker.

“You murdered my cat,” he says, and my brother instantly shakes his head. Panic is continuing to rise as I look around for any help but the only thing that I notice is Flint smirking at the situation. Of course, he is enjoying the situation, but I’ll worry about him after this is over. Finding no help from my friends either because they, like everyone else, is focused on Filch so I need to help my brother on my own. Focusing on my legs, I force my legs to move to stand next to my brother which is a feat all on its own. After getting to his side, I can feel a headache starting to form from the strain that my legs have caused. Grabbing the back of my brother’s cloak, I shake my head at Filch while trying to figure out how to calm him down long enough for me to explain the condition of his cat. Unfortunately, before I can think further, I watch as he grabs the front of my brother uniform before shouting at him.

“I’ll kill you!” he says, and my protective instincts take effect. Quickly, I try to push the two apart while still shaking my head. I feel fear bubbling inside my blood, and there is a part of me that is starting to get angry at the grown man. Nobody hurts my family! Before I can attack the man, I hear Filch hiss before yanking his hand away from my brother. He holds onto his hand, and I notice that it’s bright red almost like a burn. The anger, fear, and panic drains from my body leaving me lightheaded, and I sway a little bit before leaning against my brother.

“Did you do that?” my big brother asks me, and I shrug my shoulders. I think my magic reacted to my emotions, but it doesn’t explain that deep seated anger that appears or the other emotions that come in a detached form that I keep experiencing. Hmm, maybe I should ask someone about this. Right as I finish thinking that a chill strikes through me and all I can think about is not letting anyone find out about this. Shaking my head, I turn my attention back onto Filch who looks one step away from getting rid of us both but thankfully someone up there loves us!

“Argus!” the voice of the headmaster is heard above everyone else and the sea of students part for him. I watch as the headmaster walks toward us with Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Goldilocks behind him. At first Professor Dumbledore doesn’t seem to notice anything wrong until he starts to talk to Mr. Filch. However, once the headmaster sees the writing on the wall, I notice that his face immediately goes grave.

“Everyone will proceed back to their dormitories immediately,” Professor Dumbledore says calmly but with authority behind it. Trying to get away from the situation, my group except me start to quickly walk off with the rest of the crowd but I continue to watch the upset adult. I’ll head back as soon as my brother is far enough away from Filch that I don’t have to worry about the man attacking him. Unfortunately, that plan doesn’t work out because the headmaster calls my group back from their position at the end of the crowd. If it weren’t for the problem that we’re in, I would certainly laugh at their dejected look that they are sporting for being caught.

I listen as the prefects from each house tells their housemates to follow them. Thousands of footsteps are ricocheting off the walls and ceiling of the large hallway. I can feel eyes on me for a few seconds, but I don’t take my eyes away from the cat owner. He has progressed from overwhelming anger to just despair with some anger layered with it. A hand grabs the back of my collar and pulls me away from the adult.

“Calm down, silly girl. Show some respect to your elders,” Professor Snape’s voice belongs to the hand, and continues to hold me away from the man. Almost like I’m breathing for the first time, I gasp slightly and turn to look at the professor. Annoyance flares up inside of me when I realize that I was focusing too much on something again because of my emotions. These foreign emotions are making me lose my patience the more this happens. How can someone have emotions that are either not made by that specific person or they rapidly turn intense almost like an extraordinarily strong bi-polar disorder, but this doesn’t happen all the time. My anger sometimes becomes almost dangerous with how strong and focus it becomes, and I don’t know what to do with it.

Taking a deep breath, I force myself to turn to Professor Snape and nod my head to show that I’m okay. He stares at me for another few seconds like he is trying to figure out if I’m telling the truth or not before letting go of my collar. Readjusting my shirt and cloak, I turn to look at Professor Dumbledore talking to Mr. Filch. He is explaining to him that his cat isn’t dead but actually petrified, and I decide to write down my experience while everyone is busy. Knowing my luck, I’m going to need this explanation asap.

“I thought so! It’s sad I wasn’t there because I know a countercurse that could’ve saved her,” Professor Lockhart’s voice cuts through the air and my hand immediately slips across the page. A blush starts to form on my cheeks, and I lower my head so nobody can see. Come on! Get ahold of yourself! Taking a deep breath, I focus on lowering my heart rate when something catches my attention. The professor said countercurse. There is no countercurse for petrification. What is he talking about? Unless…I didn’t read about the countercurse yet, but I only remember the books saying that there is a potion that counteracts the effects. If he is the defense against the dark arts teacher then shouldn’t he know this? Maybe, I’m simply wrong! That has to be it! I’ll have to revisit the library and look for the countercurse that he is talking about.

“You saw what he wrote on the wall!” Filch shakenly says while looking at the headmaster. I can already tell who is talking about, and I’m starting to lose my patience with the man. There is a large part of me that is willing to drop my writing utensils and tackle the man for threatening my family. I would too but I would also like to continue my schooling here. My breathing become longer and deeper as I think about finishing my latest sentence. Let’s just get this finished because I trust the other adults to not listen to the grief-stricken man.

“I swear, headmaster, I didn’t do anything!” big brother pleads to the older man, and I nod along to his words. There is grumbling coming from the cat owner when a voice that I hear a lot enters the conversation.

“Headmaster, if I may speak,” Professor Snape says from next to me. He looks over at the headmaster before continuing, “Maybe, Mr. Potter, Ms. Potter and their friends were at the wrong place at the wrong time.” I nod my head at his words just as I finish the last part of the statement. Looking up at him, I notice that he is staring at the trio with a look that clearly states his position on this matter. Ugh, of course that would be too easy! He starts toward them while continuing with his thought. “But…I, for one, don’t remember seeing Mr. Potter at dinner.”

Okay, he has a point. There is a good reason why he wasn’t there but that is considered suspicious given that he was just found next to this monstrosity. It’s a fact but that doesn’t mean that I have to like where he is going with this. I was expecting the abnormal anger to appear again, but it isn’t coming. The usual annoyance that one gets when someone is accusing someone that they care about but besides that there isn’t anything. Maybe, it’s because I trust him? But why is he only focusing on my brother? The rest of us are equally as guilty besides the dinner part. Ugh, I honestly just want to go to bed. I feel the weight of all my ancestors falling onto my shoulders at this moment. Wait…where did that thought come from?

“That was my doing, Severus. The boy was helping me with all of the mail that my fans send me,” Goldilocks cuts into my inner dialogue, and I actually manage to not blush this time. I notice the look that Professor Snape gave to the other professor when he said that. Giggling silently, all I can think about is what he is thinking because if I had to guess based on his expression alone it is ‘seriously?’. My shoulders start to shake from the force of keeping my laughter in but thankfully Hermione starts to talk.

My friend starts to explain that they were looking for my big brother because he wasn’t at dinner. Unfortunately, she decides to stop herself before she tells everyone that my brother was hearing things. Seriously?! I love my friend, but she isn’t particularly good at lying or keeping secrets. Quietly sighing, I walk over to my head of house and hand him my statement. He quickly snatches the paper from my hand. His eyebrow raises in disbelief before looking at the headmaster. He peacefully says that my brother is innocent unless there is evidence to prove otherwise. My face almost breaks into a smile as the professor decides to read the paper. I think he knows when he is beaten, for now anyway.

“What about my cat?! She has been petrified!” Mr. Filch almost shouts at Professor Dumbledore but he quietly holds up a hand.

“We will cure her, Argus,” he says in a soft voice. It’s strange to hear a quiet voice being able to command attention from others. Professor Dumbledore is the first person that I have ever met that was able to do that. Maybe, everyone respects him or maybe they just don’t want to get on his bad side. It’s hard to imagine a bad side from a grandfatherly figure but everyone has one. As I continue to ponder this, the headmaster turns to Professor Sprout, “if I understand correctly, Madam Sprout has Mandrakes growing as we speak. Once they have matured, they will be made into a potion that will revive Mrs. Norris.”

Professor Sprout nods her head with worry. I can see why she is the head of the Hufflepuffs. Her face portrays her sadness at the situation with a deep underline of worry. From spending an entire year here, I can officially say that the Hufflepuffs are the most emotional students out of all houses. Honestly, it’s nice after spending so much time with my own house. There is a lot of calculation in my house that is hard for me to pick up.

“During this time, I highly recommend caution to all,” with that said, the professors allow us to leave. Immediately, the trio head off towards the Gryffindor Tower while I stay behind with Professor Snape. Considering that the headmaster just said to be cautious, I think it would be better if I was escorted down to the dungeons. My head of house notices that I’m still here so he tells me to hurry up before heading towards the Slytherin Common Rooms. Running after him, I try to keep up with his pace, but my legs are much shorter than his.

“Is this an accurate recounting of events?” he asks me, and I nod my head as I start to slow down. The professor suddenly stops at the stairs before handing my journal back to me. Looking up at him, I notice that he has a scowl on his face.

 **“I know that they lied but they were only trying to protect my brother. I mean, isn’t it strange that my brother heard a voice that no one else could hear but then that same voice leads us to a petrified cat?”** I ask him while thinking of solutions for this problem.

“Unlike what muggles may believe, Ms. Potter, hearing voices even in the Wizarding World is not a good thing. I suggest that you make sure your brother heeds Professor Dumbledore’s warning,” he drawls as he starts to walk down the stairs. Nodding my head, I make sure to remember his words.

 **“What are you going to do with this information?”** I ask while I start to trail behind him again. I hear him grunt as he read my message before thrusting the journal back towards me. The professor doesn’t say anything, and I start to wonder if I should ask him again. Hm, considering everything that has happened tonight maybe I should ask some other time. Everyone needs time to think things through before coming up with a game plan so maybe he doesn’t have a plan yet. A large yawn escapes me as we reach the entrance to the commons. I certainly know what my game plan is. I’m going to put on some pajamas, wrap my blankets around me like a burrito and sleep until the end of time. Honestly, that sounds so nice right now that a smile appears on my face at the very thought.

“In the process that you tell your other friends about what happened tonight, I suggest that you leave out the part about the voice. Children are particularly cruel when faced with the unnatural,” the drawl brings me out of my fantasy, and I look up at the professor. Thinking about his words, I remember Dudley and the other children at school when I or my brother did anything remotely freaky. Children are not the only ones that can be cruel considering the fact that two full grown adults locked my brother and myself in one room for the majority of the summer. Unwilling to think about that load of emotional trauma, I nod my head to the adult’s words and turn to head into the entrance. I show the portrait the page with the password, and the portrait swings open.

Not even a few seconds after the portrait closes behind me, I am immediately wrapped in pair of pale arms. My vision is overwhelmed with ash blond hair, and the smell of roses strangles my nose. Giggling, I wrap my arms around Draco, and the feeling of fatigue is momentarily forgotten in favor of enjoying the warmth that comes from a hug.

“Are you alright, Ana? What happened?” he asks in quick succession, and I giggle some more before nodding my head. We go to seat on the couch and that’s when I finally look around the commons. I honestly thought that there would be more people awake but only Crabbe and Goyle are awake. From the looks of it, the two are currently eating some desserts that they snuck into the commons. Giving them a small wave, I sit down, and I write down everything that has happened since I left dinner. Of course, I decided to heed Professor Snape’s advice and I leave out the part about my brother hearing things. I hand my journal over to my brother, and I listen to the fire crackle as he reads. Feeling the warmth and listening to the crackling, my eyes close and lean back against the suddenly unbelievably soft cushions. The cushions are like giant marshmallows that will surely swallow people up the longer that they sit. Maybe, I’ll just stay right here and sleep the night away.

My shoulder being shaken forces me to turn and look at Draco. His mouth opens but from one look at my face he closes his mouth. A large yawn escapes me, and I just have to stretch my arms over my head. Why does stretching feel so good? I don’t even place my arms down before Draco puts my journal back in my lap.

“Come on. I think it’s time to get to bed before you fall asleep down here,” he tells me, and I nod my head at his words. Draco stands up but I hold up an arm because my legs feel like two bricks. He looks down at me with an eyebrow raised but I simply give him a smile in return. With a sigh that makes my smile get even bigger, he grabs my arm and pulls me off the couch. Sleepily, I give him a kiss on the cheek and head upstairs towards my bed with open arms.


End file.
